Six-month old infant dies on board flight from Patna to Delhi

An official said the flight landed at the Delhi airport on priority after the child’s parents alerted the crew about their daughter’s deteriorating health condition.

A six-month-old infant girl, who was suffering from a heart ailment, died on board a flight from Patna to Delhi early Thursday, officials said.

An aeroplane prepares to land at an airport.(REUTERS)

The child was accompanied by her parents and they were flying to Delhi for her medical treatment. Deputy commissioner of police (Delhi airport) Sanjay Bhatia said they received information that the child had died on board SpiceJet flight SG 8481.

“Our teams reached the airport and found that the child, from Begusarai in Bihar, was suffering from a congenital heart disease. She had a small hole in her heart and she was undergoing treatment at AIIMS, New Delhi,” Bhatia said.

An official said the flight landed at the Delhi airport on priority after the child’s parents alerted the crew about their daughter’s deteriorating health condition. “The crew in turn alerted the pilots who requested a priority landing. Meanwhile, an ambulance was kept on standby to attend to the child,” thISROe officer said.

SpiceJet, in a statement, said doctors on board attended to the child. “Priority landing was approved and the aircraft landed safely. Medical facilities were made available on arrival but the doctors declared the child dead on arrival,” the airlines said.

“No prior information of the child’s medical condition was provided to the airline before her travel,” it said.

In a similar incident in January last year, a 53-year-old man died on board a Delhi-Mumbai flight after he developed acute breathlessness soon after take-off.

The same year, in October, a Thai tourist died of a cardiac arrest on board a Bangkok to Delhi flight. The flight had to make an emergency landing in Varanasi after the tourist suffered an attack.