A man died on a United Airlines flight on Tuesday.Benedict Sylvester Igwedike was flying to the US out of Lagos, Nigeria on a United Airlines flight on Tuesday but the 67-year-old man never made it, Chron reports.
According to HPD Homicide Division Senior Police Officer, M. Miller, police responded to a call that a mad had died on board the United Airlines flight #143 arriving from Lagos, Nigeria to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
"Further investigation determined Mr. Igwedike passed away shortly after the flight departed from Nigeria," Miller said. "The flight was then rerouted to Dakar, Senegal. After refueling, authorities in Senegal rerouted the flight to Houston."
An autopsy is being conducted to determine Igwedike's cause of death.
A direct flight from Lagos to Houston is typically 13 hours long. However the plane made a stop in the capital of Senegal to try to refuel.
It isn't unheard of for a person to die on a flight. Late last month, a woman was traveling to Houston from Qatat to seek medical treatment but she didn't make it. Fatimah M. Alsiari, 49, a citizen of Saudi Arabia, died a few hours into the nonstop flight from Doha, Qatar. A doctor on board Qatar Airways Flight QR077 tried to treat the woman but he could not save her.
In January a 25-year-old woman died on an American Airlines flight. In November, a Emirates Airline flight from Dubai to England made an emergency landing in Poland when another woman died on a flight. In September, a 64-year-old woman died on a Korean Air flight. In June, a man died on a flight from Amsterdam to Tazmania. His body was covered and laid across three seats, but passengers still had to sit near the body for the duration of the flight.
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