Hat Yai: Co-pilot of budget airline passes out during flight and later dies

[webfact]

LION AIR
Co-pilot of budget airline passes out during flight and later dies

BANGKOK: -- A co-pilot of a budget airline collapsed during flight after taking off from Hat Yai for about 20 minutes to Bangkok on Wednesday.

The pilot of Lion Air flight SL 8537 then made an emergency return to Hat Yai Airport and rushed him to a hospital. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

The co-pilot, a Dutch national, whose name was not revealed was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The flight had 152 passengers on board and all were safe.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Co-pilot-of-budget-airline-passes-out-during-fligh-30241361.html


-- The Nation 2014-08-20

[LivinginKata]

WOW - maybe I will give Lion Airlines a big miss. I wonder how old was the co-pilot. Sad end to his flying career.

[BKKBrit]

You would never, for love nor money, get me on this airline.

[neverdie]

WOW - maybe I will give Lion Airlines a big miss. I wonder how old was the co-pilot. Sad end to his flying career.

LIK,

Are you familiar with P2F?

[neverdie]

You would never, for love nor money, get me on this airline.

It never ceases to amaze me what people will do to save a few coins on air travel.

Not this little black duck.

[pedro01]

I have an airline I wont fly on either.

I met a guy & his wife at White Beer'd a few weeks ago.

It was about 11:30pm, he was very drunk and flying to Samui at 8:30 am the following morning.

Crazy.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[khwaibah]

Bangkok Post reports that co-pilot was 47 year old Dutch national name of Peter Esberte and died from a heart attack. RIP.

[Lite Beer]

Co-pilot faints on flight to Don Mueang

BANGKOK: -- A co-pilot of Thai Lion Air fainted while on a flight from Hat Yai to Bangkok, forcing the pilot to return and make emergency landing at Hat Yai airport.

The Dutch co-pilot died later at the Prince of Songkhla University Hospital in Hat Yai.

The incident happened today on Flight SL 8537 from Hat Yai to Don Mueang airport on which 152 passengers and crew members were on board.

Twenty minutes after taking off from Hat Yai airport, the pilot noticed his co-pilot seated beside went unconsciously.

He immediately radioed the control tower at Hat Yai airport to prepare ambulance and seek emergency landing.

The plane landed safely and the Dutch co-pilot was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead afterwards.

It was immediately known the cause of his death.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/co-pilot-faints-flight-don-mueang/

-- Thai PBS 2014-08-20

[sweatalot]

thanks God they have always two persons in the cockpit

[fvw53]

This was a very unfortunate incident and it has nothing to do with the quality of Lion Air : I have a good impression after having taken several of their flights in Thailand and in Indonesia.

[Stocky]

Lion are a good airline, I've flown with them extensively in Indonesia as well as with Thai Lion in Thailand and Malindo in Malaysia. People have heart attacks, they're usually sudden and without warning, but as pointed out that's why they put two people in the cockpit.

[Maybole]

That is why there are two pilots.

[webfact]

Copilot passes out midflight, dies
The Nation



HAT YAI: -- A co-pilot for budget airline Lion Air collapsed mid flight, 20 minutes after taking off from Hat Yai for Bangkok yesterday.

The pilot of flight SL 8537 returned to make an emergency landing at Hat Yai Airport so the copilot could be taken to hospital. However, the copilot - a Dutch national identified as Peter Esberte - was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The cause of the death was unknown as of press time.

The flight had 152 passengers on board and all were safe.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Copilot-passes-out-midflight-dies-30241407.html


-- The Nation 2014-08-21

[CaptainB]

What a very strange comments that people will NOT fly Lion Air because a pilot dies on the flight deck. What does this have to do with Lion Air.

Having said this I am aware off certain short comings in Lion Air but things are improving fast. They are a huge airline now Malindo/Batik/wings/Lion Thai/Lion. They have their own flight school, training center and simulators. Right now Thai Lion is a much safer airline to fly on than Nok Air. Unfortunately I can not get into details here but lets put it nicely; Nok Air is not taking safety serious.

P2F; yes I am aware of this; Ryanair comes to mind and many other airlines in the world... So if a pilot is willing to pay to fly why Lion Air can take those guys too,

[IamNoone88]

Two people in the cockpit? These days they are talking about zero people in the cockpit. About as dumb as driverless cars.

[MeMock]

Bagging Lion air? What about praising them for being able to land the plane safely while 50% of the landing team was having a heart attack at the controls?

In my small home town, a major industry is helicopters and fixed wing (smaller aircrafts). 20 years ago when I used to go out a lot I would always see pilots drunkingly sculling down their last pints and shots a few minutes before 10pm as they had to stick to the 8 hour dry before you fly rule as they all started flying at 6am. They were the people like the poster above who I would avoid.

[bangkokpoppys]

This was a very unfortunate incident and it has nothing to do with the quality of Lion Air : I have a good impression after having taken several of their flights in Thailand and in Indonesia.

how do you know it has nothing to do with Lion air?

[kamahele]

I have an airline I wont fly on either.

I met a guy & his wife at White Beer'd a few weeks ago.

It was about 11:30pm, he was very drunk and flying to Samui at 8:30 am the following morning.

Crazy.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Completely legal in the USA. Have to refrain from drinking only 8 hours prior to your flight. Some airlines however require 12 hours but law only requires 8.

[condoguyBKK]

You would never, for love nor money, get me on this airline.

It never ceases to amaze me what people will do to save a few coins on air travel.

Not this little black duck.

Oh, so more expensive airlines means pilots will be immune to heart attacks does it? Arrogance on your part?

Edited August 21, 2014 by condoguyBKK

[CaptainB]

This was a very unfortunate incident and it has nothing to do with the quality of Lion Air : I have a good impression after having taken several of their flights in Thailand and in Indonesia.

how do you know it has nothing to do with Lion air?

Meaning???

are you referring to too much pressure, too many flight hours? Thai Lion has 4 flight sectors a day, maximum 40 hours a week. Nothing unusual here. So why blame Lion air here?? I really don't get it why these posters including a moderator are bashing Lion for a co-pilot dying on the flight deck. Maybe just ignorance!

[Firelily]

Unfortunately I can not get into details here but lets put it nicely; Nok Air is not taking safety serious.

I would be curious, where can I search for information? how are they allowed to fly, are regulations too lax, or not enforced? I just got off a Nok flight an hour ago :-/ thanks

[96tehtarp]

This scenario is practiced and rehearsed over and over many times in flight simulator training. The crew know exactly what to do.

[DoctorG]

I just hope that all pilots adhere to their medical check schedule.

[fritzzz25]

WOW - maybe I will give Lion Airlines a big miss. I wonder how old was the co-pilot. Sad end to his flying career.

I would say that being on a flight that ONE of the flight crew becomes incapacitated would be about as common as being on a flight that crashes. In fact, pilots have to have an ECG done at each medical, which depending on their age can be as often as every six months. It would be safe to say that a bus driver or taxi driver in Thailand would have had an ECG done far less often than a pilot, yet we enter these transport forms without batting an eye.

Air travel today is safer than it ever was. The unfortunate incident with MH17 was no fault of the air crew. The recent crash in Iran on the initial information appears to be aircraft fatigue / poor maintenance. Taiwan appears to be pilot judgement error. On the face of it all, any airline is facing the SAME risk in the flight deck with medical episodes. With the 10's of thousands of flights worldwide daily, pilot incapacitation is well below .01%.

However it is your money, and you are free to spend it on any mode of travel you wish.

This airline I would personally wait for further training and flight testing before I would hop on board. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2552460/Back-drawing-board-Kenyan-built-plane-bits-scrap-vows-try-flight-attempt-sees-steer-field-crash.html

[BangPaInn]

What a very strange comments that people will NOT fly Lion Air because a pilot dies on the flight deck. What does this have to do with Lion Air.

Having said this I am aware off certain short comings in Lion Air but things are improving fast. They are a huge airline now Malindo/Batik/wings/Lion Thai/Lion. They have their own flight school, training center and simulators. Right now Thai Lion is a much safer airline to fly on than Nok Air. Unfortunately I can not get into details here but lets put it nicely; Nok Air is not taking safety serious.

P2F; yes I am aware of this; Ryanair comes to mind and many other airlines in the world... So if a pilot is willing to pay to fly why Lion Air can take those guys too,

LOL sounds like you have vested interest in Lion AIr....

9 serious incidents in only the past 13 years! with 25 recorded fatalities.....

work that one out Captain..

[tingtongteesood]

Some silly kneejerk idiots here. RIP to the poor guy, dieing of a heart attack so young. The airline could not have done anything about it and the other pilot landed safely and nobody else was hurt. Good work.

[CaptainB]

Unfortunately I can not get into details here but lets put it nicely; Nok Air is not taking safety serious.

I would be curious, where can I search for information? how are they allowed to fly, are regulations too lax, or not enforced? I just got off a Nok flight an hour ago :-/ thanks

I would not be to worried If I were you; flying remains a thousand times safer than taking a bus. But as i am involved with Thai Aviation I know many stories that are not know to the public. In reference to Lion air (which is a massive company (with a small Thai subsidiary called Thai Lion)) they do take their Business very serious, all Thai Lion crew is trained at Jakarta Crew Centre, airplanes are maintained on rotation at Lion Maintenance center at CGK (that;s why Lion flies 3 times a week DMK-CGK for staff training, aircraft maintenance on rotation etc etc.

Were is Nok air mostly maintained (in the open air at DMK??), who are the engineers at NOK air (do your research), does Nok air have any B738 simulators???, where does the crew do their training?? Before with TG; but now Nok has their 738's and Thai does NOT. The flight attendant of NOK Air are pretty and beautiful and look in the mirror a lot but I would NOT like to have an emergency with those 19 year old girls! yes the CEO of Nok air has a nice sunglasses collection but safety is NOT an immediate concern whatever they try to tell you.

And aviation oversight in Thailand???? believe me there is NONE. City airways got shut down on request of Hong Kong! The red shirt airline NEXT GEN AIR (what a joke), Orient Thai still flies after having proven to fly scrap in the skies. remember Phuket Air??? Thai aviation oversight..... what a joke!

[loumaripol]

Folks, if you were to avoid all airlines that had an inflight medical emergency involving a flight officer you would be sort of stuck. Pilots have undetectable medical problems just like the general population. Less really, with check-ups every six months.

I started working in thne airline business with Northwest at JFK. We had a 747-100 flight depart, on rotation the captain collapsed onto the control yoke. The co-pilot had to pull him off the controls and fly the aircraft. The captain had died of a heart attack at an unfortunate moment.

In the case of Lion air incident there was no real threat to the safety of the flight.

It was hard even in 1967 for an impared crewman to get all the way to the cockpit without being detected. I was a load control agent and on two occasions asked crew scheduling to replace a cerw member that seemed to be impared. One case involved a reaction to authorized medication, the other was suffering from a brain tumor.

There is no doubt that functioning alcnholics get to the controls. Making broad generalizations from annecdotal information can be mis-leading. In my entire career I have not read of one fatal accident resulting from crew health or susbstance abuse.

[wayned]

thanks God they have always two persons in the cockpit

Dream on if you think that there are always two pilots in the cockpit!

[Traveller45]

I have an airline I wont fly on either.

I met a guy & his wife at White Beer'd a few weeks ago.

It was about 11:30pm, he was very drunk and flying to Samui at 8:30 am the following morning.

Crazy.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

"Fresh as a rose" the next morning... some people can do it. Yet others cannot even walk straight unless they have their little dose. All a matter of habit. Plane finds its own way