Ryanair flight forced to make emergency landing after passenger dies onboard

A Ryanair flight was forced to make an emergency landing on Sunday evening after a passenger suffered a medical emergency mid-air and later died onboard.

Ryanair flight RK8293 departed Tirana in Albania shortly after 6pm local time Sunday and had been scheduled to arrive at Manchester Airport at 8.10pm.

However, the flight was forced to divert shortly before 8pm, after having already flown over Switzerland and France, due to a medical emergency involving a male passenger onboard.

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A fellow passenger onboard the aircraft told the Manchester Evening News that a man started “having convulsions” before passengers trained in first aid performed CPR in the aisle.

"He stopped breathing and everything went into chaos," the passenger said. "A few of us with first aid training jumped in to help and started CPR while the defibrillator was set.

"Two air crew members and three passengers managed to keep doing CPR as instructed by the defibrillator for 25 minutes when we finally landed in emergency in London. The paramedics continued for another 30 minutes when we were all instructed to leave the plane."

The plane made an emergency landing at London Stansted, where the aircraft was met by emergency crews, police, paramedics and an air ambulance. The man, whose age has not been confirmed, was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.

A spokesperson for the East of England Ambulance Service said in a statement: "One ambulance, one Hazardous Area Response Team vehicle, one paramedic car and Essex and Herts Air Ambulance were called to Stansted Airport on Sunday evening following reports of man with a medical emergency on an aircraft. Sadly, despite the best efforts of all involved, the man had died at the scene."

A Stansted Airport spokesperson added: "The flight you refer to diverted into London Stansted just before 20.00 last night due to an on-board medical emergency. The flight landed safely and was met by medics, airport fire service and ambulance crews. Despite the best efforts of all those responding to the situation, we understand the passenger did unfortunately pass away."

Witnesses said that around 90 minutes after the incident, passengers boarded again which included a fresh crew to complete the trip to Manchester.

"After about another hour, the ambulance was still there but we boarded again with a new air crew to continue the trip to Manchester, without the man and his friends. I asked and was told that, unfortunately, the man did not make it," the passenger told the Manchester Evening News.

"I was devastated to learn the sad news."

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