On November 10, 2024, a British passenger on a Ryanair flight from Tirana, Albania to Manchester, England experienced a severe medical emergency mid-flight, resulting in an emergency landing at London Stansted Airport. Despite the immediate response from both crew and passengers, the man was declared dead upon arrival.
The flight, identified as RK8293, left Tirana at 5:55 p.m. local time. The incident started when the aircraft was over France, after crossing Switzerland. A witness recalled the sudden chaos on board as passengers noticed the man’s severe convulsions and soon after, his cessation of breathing.
Three passengers proficient in first aid and two crew members initiated CPR in the aisle for approximately 25 minutes. The crew also employed the onboard defibrillator in an attempt to resuscitate the individual.
An East of England Ambulance Service representative stated that an ambulance, a Hazardous Area Response Team vehicle, a paramedic car, and the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance were dispatched to Stansted Airport that evening in response to the medical emergency. Despite all efforts, the man was pronounced dead.
Following the emergency landing, passengers disembarked while officials attended to the situation. Approximately 90 minutes later, passengers reboarded, accompanied by a new crew, to continue their journey to Manchester.
This incident is the second fatality on a Ryanair flight in 2024. Earlier that year, a British passenger died on a flight from Malaga, Spain to Manchester, necessitating an emergency landing in Bordeaux, France.
Several other mid-air fatalities occurred in 2024. Among these, Raiznal Farzad Khalik, a 41-year-old U.S. citizen, passed away from an unidentified medical condition on a Fiji Airways flight from Nadi, Fiji to San Francisco, California. Despite immediate help from a doctor on board and cabin crew, Khalik could not be saved.
In another incident, Turkish Airlines pilot İlçehin Pehlivan died while on a flight from Seattle, Washington to Istanbul, Turkey, prompting an emergency landing at JFK International Airport in New York.
While these emergencies are infrequent, they underscore the unpredictability of health risks during air travel and the difficulties of addressing critical incidents with limited medical resources at an altitude of 30,000 feet.