Pilot falls ill on Air Canada flight
Published: 12/05/08
Passenger Dave Griffiths boarded the Air Canada flight 848 from London Heathrow to Malta for a business trip he did not expect to be called to treat the pilot.
It was four or five hours into the seven hour flight to Malta when an air stewardess called if there was a doctor on board over the tanoy. Mr Griffiths said that there was some activity up front and we all pretty much assumed somebody had had a heart attack.
When the passengers were told they would be making an emergency landing in Shannon, on Irelands west coast, Mr Griffiths just assumed a passenger had fallen ill. Mr Griffiths said that it took a long time to get the patient off the plane, which seemed a bit unusual because we would have expected they would come with a stretcher, take them out and it would be over very quickly.
The passengers were left waiting in Shannon airport for eight hours before being flown back to London Heathrow.