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Ask the Captain: Dealing with in-flight health emergencies
Question: On my last flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas, we had a passenger develop a medical emergency. The pilot chose to divert the flight to Denver to get the passenger medical attention. How much of a challenge is it for a pilot to accommodate an unscheduled landing? Is it more challenging if the diversion airport is more prone to weather issues than the original destination, i.e. sunny California vs. a snowy Denver? (www.usatoday.com) Altro...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
As with all things in aviation, there is a "checklist" for such things, some may be a mental checklist. But you want to gather information such as the age, sex, symptoms etc first, then typically solicit medical personel onboard if symptoms warrant. During this a cockpit member is patched through to a Dr who is on stanby on the ground to handle such situation. The DR will ask his questions, and the fight crew will give the information they have gathered. The DR will recommend continuing, diverting, or other medical advice, and the flight crew will make a decision based on his advice, dispatch, weather etc....Flight crews deal with snowy, rain, sun etc all the time and is really not an "issue". The only issue may be if airport may be an overhead thunderstorm, or snowed in. Cheers.
aSK THAT QUESTION WHEN YOU'RE THE ONE WITH THE EMERGENCY.
"light casualties are never light to the casualties".
was that an incidental Caps Lock issue, or did you really mean to shout?
was that an incidental Caps Lock issue, or did you really mean to shout?
Sorry....I come off as a little abrupt at times. Please except my sincere apologies.
none necessary, I've lost count of the times I've had a capsloc problem. It gets caught fastest on entering passwords.
not much time in the air, but several years in the ER.
not much time in the air, but several years in the ER.
Rand Peck
Captain (ret) NWA/DAL