Passenger Dies On Qantas Airways Flight To Dubai


Qantas Airways has had more than its share of problems over the past couple of weeks. It has been confirmed that an unidentified passenger died on a Qantas Airways flight bound for Dubai on Saturday. The airline states that the apparent cause of death was a heart attack. Flight QF9 originated from Melbourne on Friday but was diverted to Muscat, Oman, to address the medical crisis. They were, unfortunately, unable to land in time.

According to Yahoo News, the airline says that their crew did everything that they could to assist the gentleman.

“Our crew did everything they could, including helping perform CPR with a doctor who was on board, but unfortunately the passenger passed away before the flight landed.”

“Our thoughts are with the passenger’s family.”

The airline has refused to identify the man or to provide specific details about his death, citing privacy concerns.

Another passenger on the flight described what took place. He said that the flight began to make a fast descent and that the man was being treated on the floor out in the open where everyone could see. The man died before they could land the plane, and multiple people boarded to examine him after the plane touched down. They removed his body approximately an hour later, along with his wife and the people who were accompanying him.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that flight QF9 was delayed for a total of four hours due to the medical emergency.

Additionally, Qantas had another incident last week which caused a flight delay. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the plane had to be turned back due to a “vibrating” engine. The flight was scheduled to fly from Brisbane to Tokyo Narita but had to return to Brisbane after about a half hour into the flight. An airline spokesperson cited technical problems as the cause of the engine anomaly.

A few days after that incident, yet another plane bound for Dubai had to be diverted to a nearby airport due to a similar vibration issue in one of the engines. That incident occurred about eight hours after take-off.

Qantas Airways is Australia’s largest airline. Its name is an acronym for “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services.” Its main hub is at Sydney Airport.

In 1971, a man by the name of “Mr. Brown” phoned the airline and made a bomb threat. Wikipedia recounts the incident in that the caller said that the bomb had been placed on a flight bound for Hong Kong. “Brown” demanded $500,000 in unmarked $20 bills. As proof of his validity, he directed the police to an airport locker where a live bomb had been stored. The airline paid the ransom demand after which the mysterious man phoned them back and told them that the story was a hoax. A man was later arrested for the crime based on an anonymous tip, but the total ransom was never recovered. A copycat unsuccessfully attempted the same ransom scheme in 1997.

Qantas has been ranked as one of the world’s safest airlines. It is claimed that they have never had an airliner crash with fatalities outside of war times. Excluding accidents and shoot-downs during World War II when some of their aircraft were flying on behalf of Allied forces, and two other accidents post-war, there have been no Qantas deaths since 1951.

The airline was founded in 1920 in Winton, Queensland. Its first international flight launched in 1935 with a maiden destination of Singapore. Qantas flights serve 65 domestic and 27 international destinations. They also operate small flightseeing charters in Antarctica. Qantas offers a non-stop flight from Sydney to Dallas/Fort Worth.

[Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images]

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