Flight Makes Emergency Landing in Abu Dhabi After Indian Boy Dies Onboard

An Oman Air flight to Kerala made an emergency landing at Abu Dhabi airport on Nov. 12 after a four-year-old Indian boy died onboard.

According to media reports, the boy, Yahya Puthiyapurayil, was in Saudi Arabia along with his family to perform Umrah, an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. He suffered an epileptic seizure 45 minutes after the Oman Air flight took off from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for Kozhikode in Kerala, reported Khaleej Times citing Mohammed Nadeer, Yahya’s uncle and an Abu Dhabi resident.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder, in which the nerve cell activity in the brain is disturbed causing seizures.

Nadeer told the publication, “He was running a mild fever while boarding the flight from Jeddah and developed epileptic seizures mid-air. He died on his mother’s lap. The family is inconsolable.”

He also told the paper that Yahya was a specially-abled child and was unable to walk or talk. He was wheelchair bound and was getting treatment since birth.

He was traveling with 13 family members, who had gone together to perform the pilgrimage.

Oman Air has also confirmed the emergency landing of its flight after this tragic incident onboard, added the report.

Gulf News cited an official of Indian Embassy as saying that the embassy was notified about the incident by afternoon and soon after that, the Public Relation Officer of the embassy, airline officers and some Indian social workers helped the grieving father, who had deboarded from the flight with his son’s body.

“The local authorities expedited the procedures and once everything was completed by the late evening, we opened the embassy, canceled the boy’s passport and issued a no-objection certificate for repatriation. The body was flown to Kerala on an early morning flight on Tuesday,” the official said, as per the report.

Citing a relative of the boy, Gulf News reported that the boy’s body reached his hometown Kannur on Nov.13 and was buried by afternoon.

Pic: Facebook@omanair