A passenger whose name has not been ascertained reportedly died mid-air onboard Delta Air Lines’ from Atlanta, United States to Lagos.
A press statement issued by the airline company confirmed the situation, adding that the crew decided to divert the aircraft to Lome, Togolese capital because of bad weather in Nigeria.
According to another passenger inside the airline, the flight was delayed in Lome owing to refuelling and weather. The Delta Air Lines’ A330-200 aeroplane carried 215 passengers.
However, the flight successfully landed in Lagos almost eight and a half hours after the scheduled time.
The flight was originally scheduled to arrive at 10am on Monday. It was learnt that the passengers were compensated.
Delta Air in a statement apologised for the inconveniences, adding that the airline regretted any difficulty or delays caused to its customers’ travel arrangements during the flight.
The statement read, “Delta flight 54 ATL-LOS has landed safely in LOS after an onboard customer medical situation and subsequent diversion to LFW due to weather. We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience and delay in their travel plans.”
A Nigerian passenger inside the plane, @samson_Goddy also confirmed the incident on his X profile. He stated that his flight was delayed and that two medical emergencies occurred, including the death of a woman in midair.
He noted that the passengers were forced to make an emergency landing in a different country after the aircraft ran out of fuel.
He wrote, “My Delta flight from Atlanta to Lagos was scheduled to land at 10am, but arrived at 6pm or later.
“So we had two health emergencies: a lady died on the flight midair, we ran out of fuel and were forced to do an emergency landing in another country, and we were grounded for 5+ hours.”
Responding to questions on X about the incident he added, “Yes, oh, one woman died like that three hours after we left. I think it was a heart attack, because there was a doctor onboard. But I overheard something similar.”