Turkish Airlines pilot dies in the air; plane makes emergency landing in New York

A Turkish Airlines pilot died after getting sick on his own flight from Seattle, Washington, on the northwest coast of the United States, to Istanbul, Turkey. That’s Captain Ilcehin Pehlivan.

A Turkish Airlines pilot died after getting sick on his own flight from Seattle, Washington, on the northwest coast of the United States, to Istanbul, Turkey.

A spokeswoman for the airline told X that captain Ilcehin Pehlivan, 59, passed out in the air and a second pilot and co-pilot took over.

“When first aid on board the plane didn’t work on our captain, the crew in the cockpit decided to make an emergency landing, but he died before they got there,” Yahya Ustun said.

Once the Airbus A350 plane got to New York, plans were made to take the people to Turkey from there, he said.

On Tuesday night, just after 19:00 Pacific Time, flight TK204 took off from Seattle. It looks like the pilot had a problem over Nunavut, Canada. His coworkers then took over and flew to John F. Kennedy International Airport.

It took about eight hours for the plane to get to New York from Seattle.

Turkish Airlines said that Mr. Pehlivan had a regular health check in early March and that it found no health problems that could affect his job. He had been flying for the company since 2007.

The Turkish Air Traffic Controllers Association (TATCA) said he had worked in flight for a long time and sent its condolences to his family, friends, and coworkers.

The reason why the pilot died has not been made public. Everyone over the age of 40 needs to renew their medical clearance every six months, and pilots have to get medical exams every year.

It was 2015, and an American Airlines pilot aged 57 passed out and died on a trip from Phoenix to Boston overnight.

When something went wrong, the first officer took over and landed the plane in Syracuse.

At the moment, there must always be two pilots in the cockpit of a big business plane.

But the EU’s aviation safety agency says that technology is being worked on so that large passenger planes can be flown by a single pilot during the cruise part of a flight. Other people in the pilot would be able to rest, but the agency stressed that safety measures had to be in place and that there had to be a plan for what to do if crew members became “incapable.”

The European Cockpit Association and other pilots’ groups have joined forces to fight the plan. They say that lowering the team size at any time would put passengers’ safety at risk.