Kolkata: An Air India flight en route to Mumbai from Bangkok made an emergency landing at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport here Thursday evening, after the pilot reported an on-board medical emergency, airport sources said.
The pilot first contacted the Air Traffic Control (ATC) shortly after 9 PM and informed that a passenger had fallen sick and he would be making an emergency landing, the sources said.
Accordingly, a medical team was kept on standby and all necessary arrangements were made. But, the pilot again informed the ATC that the condition of the passenger was grim and he wanted some immediate advice from the doctors over the radio message, they said.
In a rare move at the airport, doctors of the medical team were then taken to the ATC tower and they adviced the pilot after he narrated the condition of the patient, sources said.
The flight made the emergency landing with 244 passengers at around 10 PM and the sick passenger J Babariya (58), a resident of Gujarat, and two of his associates got down.
Babariya was soon rushed to a local private hospital where he later died, airport police officers said.
The flight left for Mumbai soon after midnight.
