Emirates Passenger Dies Mid-Flight

Image: PHOTO: An Emirates Boeing 777. (photo via Flickr/Aero Pixels)
Image: PHOTO: An Emirates Boeing 777. (photo via Flickr/Aero Pixels)
Donald Wood
by Donald Wood
Last updated: 1:56 PM ET, Mon December 18, 2017

Just a few hours after Emirates Airlines launched its second daily flight between Dubai and Lagos, Nigeria, the unthinkable happened Friday.

According to the Sahara Reporters, the flight had just arrived at Murtala Muhammed International Airport after a journey from Dubai International Airport when a female passenger from Nigeria, identified as Abaniwonda Modupe Kofoworola, was found dead.

Emirates Flight EK783 landed at 3:30 p.m. local time in Lagos, and crew members immediately contacted the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Doctors boarded the plane to provide assistance but declared the woman dead at 4:35 p.m. local time.

The female passenger's body was removed from the plane by FAAN officials and airline staff before being transported by ambulance to the general hospital in Ikeja. The cause of the death was not revealed.

"No one knows the exact time the woman died onboard the airplane, but immediately the aircraft landed, the crew called our attention to the incident and we had to inform FAAN officials," an unidentified source told the Sahara Reporters.

Emirates has dealt with death on its flights to Nigeria in the past, as the body of a man identified as Dada Isaac Olusola was discovered slumped over just minutes after arriving at the Lagos Airport in July. Medics declared him dead a short time later.


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