On Thursday, Finnair's flight from Malaga to Helsinki had to make an emergency stop in Madrid due to a sick passenger. According to the Newspaper Turun Sanomat, the aircraft was carrying back home 194 Finnish people who had been quarantined in Spain due to the coronavirus (koronavirus, in Finnish) epidemic.
MTV channel reported that soon after take off a passenger felt suddenly bad and the crew asked if there was a doctor on board. One physician was found among the passengers but the sick person was getting worse and soon the flight attendants were rushing at the plane's corridors.
After just half an hour of flight the plane had to return to Madrid.
A man travelling in the plane said to MTV the passenger was taken to the rear part for resuscitation.
“I thought the passenger was alive until landing, but later the captain announced the death." This witness also said that, though people first thought it was a coronavirus case, that was wrong. "It was a sudden illness.”
Finnair refused to confirm
Finnair does not confirm the news. Päivyt Tallqvist, Finnair's VP of Communication said to MTV, “I can confirm that the stopover had to be made in Madrid. There were Finns returning home from Malaga, and their return journey was slightly delayed. This is, of course, unfortunate in every way.”
The newspaper Ilta Sanomat tried to get a confirmation of the incident from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to this tabloid, the ministry told that due to the current situation they would not confirm the death of Finnish citizens abroad.
The Finnish Government has recommended Finns citizens who are abroad to return to the country immediately due to coronavirus (koronavirus, in Finnish) epidemic.
Many Finns live in Malaga. Finnair announced on Thursday that the company will be organizing extra flights from Malaga to Finland during the rest of the week.
