Sick passenger forces emergency landing
Print Edition
A CHINA Eastern Airlines flight, bound to New York from Shanghai, discharged tons of fuel in the air before making an emergency landing in Tokyo yesterday after a passenger coughed blood following irregular heartbeat.
A 63-year-old unidentified man on flight MU587 that took off from Pudong International Airport at 11:42am told flight attendants at 4:16pm that he felt uncomfortable, when the Boeing 777 aircraft was flying over the Sea of Okhotsk to the east of the Russian island of Sakhalin.
Crew members then triggered the “emergency rescue procedure” that includes offering oxygen mask to the passenger and looking for doctors on the flight, China Eastern said.
A Chinese and two American doctors checked the passenger, whose nationality was not revealed, and found his physical condition unstable. He was later moved to the business-class cabin to lie down and rest.
The flight captain then ordered the release of 45 tons of fuel in the air as he diverted the flight to the nearby Narita International Airport at 7:19pm (Tokyo time).
An ambulance, waiting on the apron, rushed the man to a local hospital, where his condition was reported to be stable, the airline revealed. The aircraft took off again at 8:55pm for New York after refueling.
China Eastern said in a statement that it is an international convention for aircraft to discharge abundant fuel before emergency landing to avoid putting too much weight on the landing gear. The fuel is atomized right after it is released in the atmosphere and causes limited pollution to the environment, the carrier said.
Most airports have designated fuel-discharging zones that are away from cities, airports and forests, the Shanghai-based airline said yesterday.
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