Tragic: A British Airways Cabin Crew member Dies Suddenly On Plane Packed With Passengers

A British Airways flight attendant passed away just as the airline’s flight from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) was about to depart to Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) on December 30, 2023. The flight eventually left LHR, arriving at HKG following a 15-hour flight on January 1, 2024.

Passing away suddenly

According to a report by The New York Post, the flight attendant passed away after suddenly collapsing onboard, with the flight in its final stage of preparation for departure to HKG. While a passenger trained in first aid attempted to save the cabin crew member, they passed away at the scene.

“Sadly, despite the best efforts of our crew, a patient was pronounced dead at the scene,” the London Ambulance Service said in a statement to the United Kingdom (UK)-based Metro. Meanwhile, an airline spokesperson told Simple Flying, “Our thoughts are with our colleagues’ friends and family at this incredibly sad time.”

Looking at Flightradar24 data, British Airways operates two daily flights between LHR and HKG, flights BA 27 and BA 31, with the airline using either the Airbus A350-1000 or Boeing 787-9 to operate the route. The latter was the primary type used for the flights in the past few weeks. On December 30, 2023, flight BA 31 was scheduled to depart LHR at 17:40 local time. However, the flight left the British capital the next day at 16:31, landing at HKG at 12:21 the following day. ADS-B Exchange data also showed that the Boeing 787-9, registered as G-ZBJI, landed in Hong Kong on January 1, 2024, at 12:21 local time. The aircraft left HKG on flight BA 32 at 00:15 local time on January 2, 2024, arriving at LHR at 7:20.

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British Airways in HKG

British Airways returned to HKG in December 2022 after only operating freight flights to the Asian city. The first passenger flight between LHR and HKG was flight BA 31 on December 5, 2022, flown by a Boeing 787-9, registered as G-ZBKE. At the time, the British carrier only operated four weekly flights, but with the start of the summer season in March 2023, the flights increased to twice a day.

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According to data from the aviation analytics company Cirium, British Airways has scheduled 124 return flights between LHR and HKG, representing 26,664 scheduled seats and 257.2 million Available Seat Kilometers (ASK). In comparison, during the same month a year prior, there were only 62 return flights, resulting in 13,392 scheduled seats and 129.2 million ASKs.

Photo: Kevin Hackert | Shutterstock

The only other airline operating flights from LHR to HKG is Cathay Pacific, the HKG-based carrier. The airline has a much larger schedule capacity-wise since it scheduled 232 return flights during January 2024, representing 74,726 seats and 720.9 million ASKs. Cathay Pacific operates flights between LHR and HKG with either Airbus A350-900, A350-1000, or Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, with the majority of them (186 return flights) being operated by the latter.

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