A US citizen died aboard a Fiji Airways flight bound for San Francisco on Saturday despite the plane’s crew’s desperate effort to save the passenger.
The 41-year-old male passenger “encountered a medical condition” about an hour and a half before the flight from Nadi, Fiji, was set to land at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) on Saturday, Fiji Airways wrote in a statement Tuesday.
“Despite the best efforts of our cabin crew and a doctor on board who provided immediate assistance, the passenger unfortunately passed away,” the airline shared.
The Airbus flight crew “declared a medical emergency” before landing safely at SFO at 2:34 p.m., according to FlightAware.
Fiji Airways ground operations personnel and first responders were waiting for the aircraft upon its arrival to remove the already deceased passenger.
The airline praised the Airbus’ “cabin crew and the assisting doctor for their swift and professional response to this emergency.”
“Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of the deceased during this difficult time,” the airline said.
The circumstances around the passenger’s death remain unclear.
The Post has reached out to San Francisco International Airport and Fiji Airways.
The tragedy in the air comes a month after the mother of a 14-year-old boy who died on board an American Airlines flight in 2022 announced she was suing the airline for negligence.
New York City resident Melissa Arzu claims that the defibrillator that the aircrew used aboard American Airlines Flight 614 from Honduras to Miami to try to save her son, Kevin Greenidge, was faulty.
She also claims the cabin crew was slow to respond to the teen after he lost consciousness and that the crew was not adequately trained on how to use the defibrillator, and the medical device in question has since gone missing, according to the lawsuit filed in Texas.
“After Kevin died, the equipment went missing,” the heartbroken mother’s attorney, Hannah Crow, said.
“Did someone at American intentionally destroy it? Is it defective? Put back out in service?”
Crowe claims that multiple eyewitnesses also confirmed that the AED machine used to try to resurrect Kevin appeared not to work.
Kevin suffered from asthma and type 2 diabetes. His primary cause of death was listed as “myocardial infarction” — a heart attack.
Defibrillators have been mandatory on all commercial airline flights since 2004, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
A plane will not be allowed to take off without the device onboard or if it’s determined to be inoperable.
