‘Dead’ man walks out of flight from Kolkata

You may have read about numerous passenger deaths in flights or at the airport. But earlier this month, a passenger who was declared dead on a Jet Airways flight walked away after the plane landed in Mumbai.

On December 6, a passenger named M Jha, 46, boarded a Jet Airways flight (9W 212) from Kolkata to Mumbai. The plane was scheduled to reach Mumbai airport at 11pm but was delayed by almost an hour. At about 11:30pm, Jha complained of uneasiness and collapsed.

“There was a doctor on board who attended to the ailing passenger,” said a source in the airline, who was also on the plane.

The doctor, however, declared Jha dead. By 11:45pm doctors at the airport had been informed of the emergency. “We were told that a passenger had collapsed and needed urgent attention,” said a doctor on duty at the airport.

The plane was cleared for landing on priority basis and parked at bay number 35. “Our doctors, who rushed to attend to the case as soon as the plane landed, found the passenger had walked out of the flight,” said an official of Mumbai International Airport Limited.

“It seems the passenger had only fainted,” he said. Jet Airways officials said there was no such incident and refused comment further. However, the incident is on record with the airport doctors.