Delta Passenger Dies On Flight From Nigeria To Atlanta

ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines says a 57-year-old passenger was found dead aboard a flight from Nigeria to Atlanta.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said an autopsy determined Aolatou Assani died of ovarian cancer.

Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott says she was found unresponsive early Monday aboard Delta Flight 53, about an hour out of Atlanta and about 11 hours after it took off from Lagos.

FBI Special Agent Steve Emmett says the FBI was initially involved in the investigation because the woman died aboard an international flight.

Comments

[mamacat]

09:14 PM on 08/31/2010

It is sad, but with almost 7 billion people living and dying on the planet, it is bound to happen. I have seen people expire at a Dodger game, and on a ship, waiting to dis-embark. We had a driver pass away at one company I worked for. He managed to pull his truck to the side of the road and park it before he lost control. He sat in his cab for three days before his body was discovered.

[libnlandofthelost]

04:00 AM on 08/31/2010

When I started working in an ER that was next to a large international airport, I was surprised to learn that a lot of people get really sick on long and short flights.
The cabin air is recirculated, not vented to outside, as there is little oxygen in air at the altitudes that most aircraft travel at. Sometimes people that travel to the US from other countries specifically for medical care, seem okay to travel before they leave, but become immediately sicker in the air because of cabin air quality, and the body's ability to use oxygen a higher altitudes.
Most healthy people are completely unaffected, but people with underlying cardiac or respiratory issues can get pretty sick without much provocation.

[ChicagoBob]

12:29 AM on 08/31/2010

RIP. This is a sad tale, but one I can relate to.

The last time I flew Delta I was starting to think that death was a viable option.

[AYO OLAGUNJU]

08:29 PM on 08/30/2010

This is scary and crazy.For sure no one in Delta Air Lines knows exactly when passenger Assani died. She was only discovered an hour to Atlanta.Whether you fly Business Class or Coach, Delta Air lines, is gaining notoriety as a symbol of scary international flight, complemented with unfriendly attendants and disgusting in-flight service. Delta Air Lines, You sure need a combined dose of preventive and curative PR. May her soul rest in peace

[ramal]

05:45 PM on 08/30/2010

Actually, anytime you are on a Delta Flight in coach you are praying for your own death.

[Donna Davis]

06:18 PM on 08/30/2010

Not very nice but hilarious!

[angrymanspokane]

07:15 PM on 08/30/2010

Insensitive and completely inappropriate - and funny. Thanks!

[lesterbud]

05:13 PM on 08/30/2010

Probably ate the fish dinner I was just served in business elite on their flight from Sydney to LA.
Fish and fruit was actually rotting.

[wonder woman]

04:11 PM on 08/30/2010

I don't know why this is news.
My brother works in the industry, and he said this is not the first time someone has died on a long haul flight.Especially, those flights to Asia or Africa, where many immigrant elderly insist on returning to their homeland,the airlines experience ,on occasions, a passenger pass away on route.
Travelling is stressful, and flying long haul is doublely so for the body. Therefore, if you are sick,or on in the late stages of a pregnancy, it best just not to go.
Fortunately, for the vast flying public, the flight may be long and uncomfortable, but they will not died from a flight. And, the rewards of arrival in a distant destination,in which one could only dream about years ago, far out weights the discomforts.
(I ought of know. I fly constantly.But, I do agree Atlanta Airport does suck; it just too big.)

[babybuda]

03:57 PM on 08/30/2010

swallower ? ( the act of smuggling drugs in ones stomach)

[liberalrebuttal]

04:57 PM on 08/30/2010

READ ? ------> The act of reading an article before you respond and say something totally stupid? She died of Ovarian Cancer.

[babybuda]

06:38 PM on 08/30/2010

When the story was first posted It did not say the reason at the time !
I do read. Note time of my post 3:57 this new story which should have said
"UPDATED" was posted at 4:19 .
No matter how ! it is sad and in-flight kind of creepy .
I too can't stand it when folks don't read the article as well!

[TXfemmom]

03:30 PM on 08/30/2010

How can the airline not provide the woman's identity? How was she permitted to board the plane?

[PunKinPai]

03:57 PM on 08/30/2010

The article did not specify the meaning of "can't." I suspect it's that it's prohibited from doing so, for privacy reasons or because the family hadn't yet been notified.

[libnlandofthelost]

03:42 AM on 08/31/2010

Before cell phones were available, my kids occasionally had to fly unaccompanied to meet one or the other of their parents somewhere.
Sometimes making sure they were on the fight before I left the house for the airport was challenging. In order to get to the airport on time through traffic, I had to leave the house where the phone was - hours before the flight took off in its originating city.
At that time airlines were not able to release passenger names. We had to come up with some pretty elaborate message relaying plans to make sure whoever put then on the plane, let whoever was meeting the plane at its destination know that they got on board safely.
I wonder if that is still the case.

[NAOMA]

03:18 PM on 08/30/2010

If you were her seatmate, how could you NOT NOTICE she was not BREATHING????

[TXfemmom]

03:31 PM on 08/30/2010

People often sleep on these long flights. How they do it is a mystery to me, as I have never, ever been able to sleep on planes, but I have seen them take sleeping pills on flights.

[KIVPossum]

04:01 PM on 08/30/2010

I've taken many 8-12 hour flights and not spoken more than ten words to my seatmate.

[msles59130]

03:14 PM on 08/30/2010

Delta has the nastiest, meanest flight attendants out there, and that is really saying something since very few have any nice ones! They may not have killed the woman, but likely didn't do some other part of their job.

[TXfemmom]

03:34 PM on 08/30/2010

We had a very nice flight attendant on Delta. I purchased two seats because I am heavy, not that heavy, but it gives me and my husband extra room. We had confirmed seating on their MD80's and despite that, gate agents on our flights moved us and put me in a row with two seats where the arms did not come up. They had tried to put my two seats in different rows.

When we boarded and discovered this, the Flight attendant was really nice and moved us to First Class, which wasn't much, as the seats in coach and First Class were all filthy.

[msles59130]

05:30 PM on 08/30/2010

I am glad you found a nice one. She or he must have been new.

[fightorleave2]

01:06 PM on 09/01/2010

I wonder how much the purchase of those tickets cost?

In other words, it must be nice to be able to purchase 2 seats so that you could be comfortable.

Oh, it's you, the lady from Texas, and now I understand.

[PunKinPai]

03:58 PM on 08/30/2010

That's a horrible accusation.

[msles59130]

05:30 PM on 08/30/2010

It wasn't supposed to be nice. It just happens to be true.

[Bogey907]

02:54 PM on 08/30/2010

I've wanted to die on a Delta flight more than once.

[Chicago jo]

06:02 PM on 08/30/2010

I've often wanted the person next to me to die.

[kingofthenet]

02:24 PM on 08/30/2010

I hope it wasn't Ebola-Zaire, although that is fairly noticeable.

[starrynights]

01:49 PM on 08/30/2010

Sitting for long periods of time can cause pulmonary emboli. I think this will likely be determined as the cause of death.

[jamesmac10]

02:23 PM on 08/30/2010

you remind me of my brother. he has an answer before any of the facts are in.

[abuja19]

02:38 PM on 08/30/2010

Starrynights is just speculating the cause of the death as being a medical reason. Nothing wrong in that.

[starrynights]

06:09 PM on 08/30/2010

LMAO, just how old Are you anyway?

[TXfemmom]

02:44 PM on 09/01/2010

A lot of people get on flights when they have health problems and then the fact that the airplanes only have 19% oxygen, instead of 21% really makes a difference for them. Besides, people drop over dead every day because of heart irregularities all the time.

I thought I was getting a cold, but had bronchitis, got on a flight, and I knew I was in trouble right away. The flight was totally full, and I became nauseated from the lack of oxygen, went to the rear with a barf bag, had to get a cold cloth for my forehead, and the flight attendants even noticed my lips were blue, but they refused to get the oxygen for me and didn't have the plane land early. That was on Southwest.

[Tom95134]

01:41 PM on 08/30/2010

This happens more often that most people think. Nothing new here... move on.

[abuja19]

02:14 PM on 08/30/2010

Ouch. Not even an RIP or a virtual sending of condolence to the family of the deceased? :-(

[NoElephants]

02:33 PM on 08/30/2010

It's a cruel world out there kid.

[Angelus2007]

02:18 PM on 08/30/2010

Think about the 50,000 flights a day with an average of 100 people per flight, 5 million people fly each day, if you have a city of 5 million peple imagine even going a day without a death.