KLM B744 over Atlantic on Feb 25th 2017, captain incapacitated

Last Update: February 28, 2017 / 22:42:06 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of KLM PH-BFT, Boeing 747-400 — KLM PH-BFT, Boeing 747-400 (Photo credit: BIG FOOT11 / Flickr / License: CC by-nd)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Feb 25, 2017

Classification
Incident

Cause
Captain incapacitated

Airline
KLM

Flight number
KL-643

Departure
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Destination
New York JFK, United States

Aircraft Registration
PH-BFT

Aircraft Type
Boeing 747-400

ICAO Type Designator
B744

A KLM Boeing 747-400, registration PH-BFT performing flight KL-643 from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to New York JFK,NY (USA), was enroute at FL360 about 330nm north of St. John's,NL (Canada) when the crew decided to divert to St. John's declaring medical emergency due to the captain becoming ill. The aircraft landed safely on St. John's runway 11 about 50 minutes later.

The airline reported the captain became ill and was taken to a hospital in stable condition. A replacement crew is being flown to St. John's. While waiting for the replacement crew the passengers have been taken to hotels.

On Feb 28th 2017 a passenger reported that it transpirted the captain had suffered a heart attack. The first officer diverted the aircraft to St. John's. After landing a lot of emergency personnel entered the aircraft, the captain was taken out of the cockpit on a wheelchair about 30 minutes after landing, he was alert and apologized to passengers. It was announced that a replacement crew, which was scheduled to fly the return flight from JFK, would position to St. John's on a charter plane and arrive in about 4.5 hours. However, it was not possible to exit the aircraft due to the airport being unable to handle that many passengers and nine horses on board, that were loaded in the aft cargo hold, could not be unloaded due to lack of ground support, and were balanced out by the passengers - if all passengers exited the aircraft the aircraft would sit on its tail. It then became known that the replacement crew could not get out of JFK, about 5 hours after landing the passengers were permitted to disembark. When passengers queried what about the horses, they were told, the balance had been recalculated in Amsterdam and it was found out that the suitcases and cargo in the other holds would be sufficient to balance the horses out. Everyone finally got to hotels at about 04:00L.

The aircraft continued the journey to New York after 24 hours on the ground in St. John's and reached JFK with a delay of 25 hours.