2 days ago
Over 500 stranded as Qantas flight makes emergency landing after passenger falls ill
A Qantas flight that took off from London for Singapore was forced to make an emergency landing in Azerbaijan's Baku after a passenger suffered a major cardiac episode mid-air. What followed was an unexpected overnight halt for around 500 passengers onboard QF2, the Qantas Airbus A380 flight from Heathrow to Singapore, found themselves waking up in Azerbaijan on Monday after a medical emergency forced the plane to eight hours into the 13-hour journey, a woman in her 60s became critically unwell. Dr Hamish Urquhart, an Australian doctor onboard, told ABC News that she suffered a 'major cardiac event' and required immediate attention. With intravenous access proving tricky while descending, the crew made a swift call.
'The lady was really quite unwell and needed intravenous access while we were trying to land, which was a bit challenging,' the doctor was quoted as saying by ABC to reports, the pilot executed a sharp 180-degree turn and headed straight for Baku, home to the closest airport capable of handling an A380. The aircraft touched down safely at Heydar Aliyev International Airport at around 7.56am local time. Upon landing, the woman was taken to a nearby hospital. Two other medical professionals assisted Dr Urquhart in stabilising her during the the crew managed the emergency calmly, the diversion had knock-on effects. The aircraft, originally scheduled for routine maintenance in Singapore, now needed an engineer flown in from London to carry out checks in Baku, The Independent passengers, mostly Australians en route Sydney, faced their own share of the diversion pushing crew members beyond their legal duty hours, Qantas arranged overnight accommodation for all onboard. But before they could even reach their hotels, most passengers had to wait over three hours just for their online visas to be approved.'It took five hours to exit the plane, then three hours to wait for a visa to come through, and finally a two-hour trip to a hotel with frequent stops as the guide called someone, evidently totally unsure where to take us,' a flight passenger told ABC News.A Qantas spokesperson confirmed the diversion, saying: 'We apologise to customers for the disruption and are working to get them on their way to Singapore as soon as possible.'The airline also reiterated that safety remained its top were expected to resume their journey via Singapore later in the day.
