Woman dies on Ryanair flight returning from Spain

A woman has died on board a flight returning from Spain. The Incident at Dublin Airport on Tuesday night saw emergency services and Gardai called to the scene following reports of a medical emergency onboard her flight.

Despite their best efforts, the woman, who was in her 60s, was sadly pronounced dead shortly after. Her body was then transported to the morgue at Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.

The flight had arrived from Spain and there are no suspicions of foul play in relation to the woman’s death. A spokesperson for the Gardai confirmed to DublinLive: “Gardai and emergency services were alerted to a medical emergency onboard a flight which landed at Dublin Airport, on Tuesday night, June 18, 2024.

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“A female in her 60s was pronounced deceased a short time after landing. Her body was removed to the morgue at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown.”

According to Sunday World, the woman was not travelling alone. They reported that she was accompanied by her son, daughter and a friend on the Ryanair flight, reports the Mirror.

In another tragic incident, an eight year old girl died on a SkyWest Airlines flight to Chicago after suddenly falling ill and becoming unresponsive. Despite the aggressive resuscitative efforts of medics upon landing, Sydney Weston from Missouri sadly passed away.

She was travelling with her family from Joplin when she suffered a medical emergency, leading to the flight being rerouted to land in Peoria, Illinois on Thursday, June 13.

The Independent has reported that a plane was forced to make an urgent landing at General Wayne A Downing Peoria International Airport at 7.02am on Thursday, just 71 minutes after takeoff, following a dire emergency. Tragically, the coroner’s office disclosed that “landing in Peoria, she was not breathing and had no pulse.”

The young girl, despite being rushed to OSF Healthcare Saint Francis Medical Center, which is seven miles from the airport, was pronounced dead by 8.02am.

An initial post-mortem examination into Sydney’s death did not reveal a definitive cause, as per the Daily Mail. Last Friday, the Peoria County coroner’s office announced that further tests are pending to ascertain the exact cause of death.

While the preliminary findings have been inconclusive, authorities have excluded any possibility of foul play, abuse, or neglect. The family released a statement expressing their heartbreak: “Our hearts are shattered by the devastating loss of our precious daughter. We request privacy and respect as we cope with this profound grief.”

According to a study published in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine in 2021, there’s a global incidence of 18.2 in-flight medical emergencies for every million passengers, with a mortality rate of 0.21 per million. With an expected surge in air travel, with numbers potentially reaching 4.7 billion passengers in 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic figures, Conde Nast Traveller suggests that the public may become more aware of such unfortunate events during flights in the coming years.