A Nigerian passenger, identified as Micheal Ijadunmi, died on board a Delta Air flight en route Atlanta to Lagos, at about 12:28 pm local time, three hours before the expected arrival of the flight at the Lagos airport.
Some of the passengers who spoke with on condition of anonymity, said they saw the 65 year old
man coming on board the flight but did not know that he was sick and would not make the flight to its final destination.
They said the death of the passenger filtered into the cabin after passengers sitting nearer to him called the attention of the cabin crew to the man’s condition.
“I saw that man at Atlanta before the flight took off. I didn’t know he was sick. But I was shocked after the passenger sitting next to him called attention of the cabin crew to the man and all we later heard was that the man has passed on before medical help got to him, a passenger said.
Another passenger, an American, who claimed he had never seen a corpse at close distance, said he was not happy throughout the flight after he learnt about the man’s death on board the flight.
“I was shocked when we heard the man was dead. I have never seen a
corpse at close distance. I was no longer myself till we arrived here.
A lot of things were just going through my mind. It was a painful
experience,”
Meanwhile, some members of the family of the deceased who had earlier arrived at the airport to receive him were seeing entering the ambulance in which the corpse was conveyed from the airport to a morgue where it would be posited.
The media agent of Delta Air in Nigeria, TopComm in a statement confirming the death said, “A passenger on Delta Flight DL54 travelling from Atlanta to Lagos today (11 March), was found unresponsive before landing.
Local medical professionals met the plane upon arrival and confirmed the passenger had sadly passed away.
Delta extends its deepest condolences to the family at this sad time”
The statement added, “As a matter of passenger privacy, Delta will not release additional information”.
