A teen died on a flight over the weekend. A Washington fire official said that a 16-year-old boy suffered from a medical condition and passed away while on a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Atlanta, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.
The teen was from a military family and was traveling to Atlanta to celebrate the Christmas holidays with his family when he passed away on Saturday. The flight was diverted to Spokane International Airport.
Flight 128, which took off around 9 a.m. was only in the air for about half an hour after taking off when the boy had a medical emergency, Brian Schaeffer, assistant fire chief in Spokane, Wash. said according to MSN. Details of the emergency were not available but the boy died on natural causes.
The teen has an extensive history of medical conditions, but Schaeffer says there was no indication that anything was wrong before the flight. The teen was traveling with his mother when he died.
"They'd been dealing with deployments and being moved around, and it was really tragic to have this happen when they were trying to get together with their family," Schaeffer told MSN.
The Spokane Fire Department released a statement on its Facebook page saying, "Despite resuscitation attempts by Engine 6 assisted by AMR & SIA, the young patient did not survive. The military family was traveling with the teen to Atlanta for a family Christmas. Thoughts and prayers from all of us at the SFD for the family and their extended Army Family."
According to Schaeffer, arrangement were made to deliver the boy's body to his family in Atlanta.
According to Delta spokesman Michael Thomas, who spoke to KHQ, there were 258 passengers on the Boeing 767. When the plane landed in Washington, they were taken off the flight and were rebooked onto other flights to continue to their destinations.
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