A Turkish Airlines pilot has died while flying a passenger plane from the US to Turkey, forcing the crew to make an emergency landing in New York.
İlçehin Pehlivan, the plane’s 59-year-old captain, fainted during the flight from Seattle, Washington, to Istanbul, which reportedly took off at around 7pm on Tuesday.
The crew staged a medical intervention but it was “ineffective”, Turkish Airlines spokesperson Yahya Ustun wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The flight’s co-pilot made an emergency landing in New York – but the captain lost his life before the plane landed.
Flight maps show the plane’s path towards Istanbul before the co-pilot took a sharp diversion.
The 59-year-old pilot, who had worked for Turkish Airlines since 2007, had passed a medical examination in March, which gave no indication of any health problems, Ustun wrote.
