Mid-air deaths: Seventh passenger dies in less than three months

Mumbai: Even as the country's aviation industry goes from strength to strength, the death of the seventh passenger aboard aircraft of Indian companies in less than three months has shifted the focus back to the important question of passenger safety.
Sushil Mukherjee (71) breathed his last on board Jet Airways flight 9W 117 from London to Mumbai on Sunday after complaining of chest pain. Mukherjee boarded the flight from London with his son and wife on Saturday and, soon after the flight's departure, complained of pain in the chest.
Co-passengers said that he was administered medicine by the crew, which proved useless, and he died three hours before the flight landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on Sunday.
H S Khola, former DGCA chief said, "If such things happen, the captain on board can make an emergency landing. Why this was not done is a matter of investigation."
A senior airport official said, "We were informed of a sick passenger at 7.45 am on Sunday, three hours before the flight was scheduled to land. ...The doctors said the passenger died in mid air."
12/05/10 Bipin Kumar Singh/MiD DAY

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Categories: Airports May 2010, Jet Airways May 2010, Safety May 2010