According to an airline spokesperson, a Turkish Airlines jetliner headed from Seattle to Istanbul made an emergency landing in New York on Wednesday after the pilot died on board
Pilot İlçehin Pehlivan, 59, lost consciousness at some point after Flight TK204 took off from Seattle Tuesday night, Turkish Airlines spokesperson Yahya Üstün said in a statement, The AP reported.
Crew members decided to make an emergency landing and worked to revive the pilot, Üstün said, but he died before the plane landed.
Data from the tracking site FlightAware shows that the Airbus A350 landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport just before 6 a.m.
Arrangements were being made for passengers to reach their destination from New York, the airline spokesperson said.
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Pehlivan had worked at Turkish Airlines since 2007, Üstün said. A routine health check in March showed no health problems that would have prevented him from working, he said.
“As Turkish Airlines, we deeply feel the loss of our captain and extend our sincerest condolences to his bereaved family, colleagues, and all his loved ones,” Üstün said.
A Turkish Airlines flight traveling from Seattle to Istanbul made an emergency landing at Kennedy International Airport in New York early Wednesday morning after the pilot died, the airline and federal aviation authorities said.
According, the plane, an Airbus 350, took off at 7:02 p.m. Pacific time on Tuesday, according to Flight Aware data. The pilot, Ilcehin Pehlivan, lost consciousness during the flight, the airline said, and after unsuccessful attempts to revive him, a decision was made to land at J.F.K. after about eight hours in the air.
The plane, Flight 204, was over Baffin Island in northern Canada when it took a sharp right turn and headed for New York. It landed there at 5:57 a.m. Eastern.
Mr. Pehlivan, 59, died before landing, the airline said, without specifying a cause. The airline said that he had had regular health examinations, including one in March of this year, and that no problems were found.
The airline said arrangements were being made to get passengers to Istanbul on other flights.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the incident in a statement and said that “one of the pilots suffered a medical emergency.” The agency referred additional questions to the airline.
