Last month a man named Colmin Smith, 48, was on board a Virgin Atlantic flight travelling from Antigua to London Gatwick when he was taken unwell mid-flight. Colmin called for an air hostess who noticed how ill he appeared which was when he confessed to be carrying £40,000 worth of cocaine inside his stomach. The air hostess immediately notified the pilot which sparked a full-scale passenger jet emergency landing. The quantity of Class A cocaine that was inside his stomach was an astonishing half a pound that had been divided up into 61 pellets which he had swallowed individually. Each pellet contained cocaine which was believed to be 75% pure. Shortly after notifying the air hostess Colmin fell unconscious. The clock was ticking and Colmin’s fate all depended on how quickly the pilot could land safely to get him to hospital. The crew all prepared for landing at Bermuda’s L F Wade International Airport. The runway had been cleared and medics from the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital were on standby, ready to receive Mr Smith. Miraculously, Colmin survived the journey to Bermuda and in order to save his life a major operation had to be carried out to remove all of the Class A substance from his stomach. A total of 239.39 grams of cocaine was removed with a street value of £40,000. Colmin’s trip to the Caribbean will definitely be one to remember! In this kind of event where a passenger is taken seriously ill or in extreme cases dies on board a commercial flight it classifies as an extraordinary circumstance – out of the airline’s control. An airline cannot be held responsible for any delay that it may cause, as airlines have a duty of care to all passengers on board and are responsible for everybody until reaching the scheduled destination. In this case, passengers on board the flight to London Gatwick would not be able to claim compensation for the delay that was caused. It has been calculated that approximately 7% of flights have to be diverted due to medical emergencies. Airlines try to avoid this as it is costly, inconvenient for passengers and above all the area in which the aircraft is at the time of the event may not offer the highest quality of treatment. The final decision rests with the pilot and all depends on the severity of the situation. The good news is that when a passenger falls ill, research shows that 48% of the time a doctor will be on board, 20% of the time a nurse will be on board and 8% of the time a paramedic or health professional will be on board. However, for one third of cases, flight attendants themselves have handled the emergencies without professional assistance. Normally, if a flight is delayed for 3 hours or more and the airline is fully responsible then a passenger under European law has rights to claim back compensation for the delay. European Regulation 261/2004 outlines these rights and acts as the binding law within the European Union for flight delay compensation and flight delay refunds. Visit Blueway Limited’s website if you would like to make a claim (www.flightdelayrefund.com).
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