A PASSENGER on a flight from Turkey to the United States died mid-air – but officials are uncertain where the body is.
The tragic incident occurred on a flight between Istanbul and San Francisco on July 13.
The passenger reportedly suffered a “severe medical emergency” while the flight was cruising over Greenland.
To start with, the flight was preparing to divert to Keflavik Airport in Iceland after the death.
But in the end they decided to not divert away from North American airspace.
According to Aviation A2Z, the urgency to land the plane decreases if a passenger suffering a medical emergency has passed away.
“As they entered U.S. airspace, the crew decided to make a landing at CHICAGO O’HARE (ORD), a key international hub well-equipped to manage emergency landings and provide necessary medical aid and facilities,” the outlet mentioned.
It remains unknown what medical emergency the passenger suffered.
The body was removed from the plane upon landing in Chicago.
This is the point at which responsibility for the corpse should have gone to Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
But medical examiner spokesperson Natalia Derevyanny told SFGATE that they have no record of a body being brought to them from this flight.
The office further does not have any cases that match the description of this incident.
Turkish Airlines station manager Ertugrul Gulsen informed the New York Post that the flight was redirected to Chicago, and the deceased passenger’s remains were later transferred to a flight heading to San Francisco.
However, they did not elaborate further.
The exact location of the passenger’s remains are still unknown.
Turkish Airlines was contacted by The Sun for comment.
A 2021 study published in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine says that a “death onboard a commercial aircraft is actually quite rare.”
It comes following a series of aviation related tragedies in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, a small plane crashed into a busy highway in northern Italy.
Two people tragically died in the fireball when the light aircraft hurtled into the tarmac.
A shocking video shows the plane nosediving towards the road before exploding upon impact.
