A 47-year-old British Airways pilot has collapsed and died suddenly, according to the airline.
The Senior First Officer was resting at a luxury hotel during an overnight layover in between flights on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
However, the pilot, who has not been named by British Airways, dropped dead in the airport lobby in front of horrified vacationers.
The airline was forced to cancel the flight which was due to leave for London early the following morning.
According to British Airways, the pilot of Flight BA2158 died on Sunday, November 3.
The devastated crew returned to the UK on another the following day.
“This tragedy has left British Airways staff stunned and deeply upset,” a British Airways employee revealed.
“The Senior First Officer was very popular and his death was completely out of the blue.
“He was the life and soul; a really popular guy and just 47-years-old old.
“He collapsed suddenly in a public area.
“It’s so sad that this has happened and everyone has been hit for six.
“Bosses have handled the tragedy in an incredibly sensitive way and staff can speak to a trained counselor if it helps them.”
The crew on board have since been offered counselling by bosses.
BA executives were liaising with authorities in St Lucia and assisting the experienced pilot’s shattered family.
The airline’s flights to Grenada and St Lucia from Gatwick airport are rammed with travelers seeking sun, luxury resorts, reef diving, fishing, and picturesque rainforest trails.
In a statement, British Airways said:
“Our thoughts and condolences are with the family and friends of our colleague at this difficult time.”
No cause of death has been revealed and the details surrounding the pilot’s sudden passing have been withheld from the public.
The news follows a recent surge in pilots dying suddenly or mysteriously becoming incapacitated.
As Slay News reported last month, 30-year-old Harrison Allchin, from Australia’s Gold Coast, also tragically died “suddenly,” according to his devastated family.
Allchin served as First Officer at QantasLink Airlines for the last six years.
He died on October 13 and is remembered by his grieving family as a “superhuman” and “salt of the earth” person.
No cause of death was revealed.
Earlier in October, another pilot died suddenly while flying a packed passenger jet, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in New York.
The pilot has been identified as 59-year-old Ilcehin Pehlivan.
Pehlivan dropped dead mid-flight while flying a Turkish Airlines plane from Seattle to Istanbul.
Turkish Airline spokesman Yahya Ustun said Pehlivan unexpectedly passed over the aircraft controls to his co-pilot as he was losing consciousness.
He then collapsed in the cockpit and was unresponsive.
The plane’s crew desperately tried to perform CPR on the captain but it failed to work.
Flight TK204 made an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Emergency responders rushed on board but were too late and the pilot was declared dead.
The cause of his death has not been released.
Earlier last month, the wife of another pilot also had to push for an emergency landing after her husband suffered a heart attack mid-air.
Yvonne Kinane-Wells, who had no flying experience, took the matter into her own hands and got a detailed brief from the Air Traffic Controller (ATC).
The couple was en route from Henderson Executive Airport in Las Vegas to Monterey, California, on a Beechcraft King Air 90 aircraft.
She called air traffic control to help her attempt to land the propeller aircraft as her stricken husband, Eliot Alper, 78, lay slumped beside her.
Aided by emergency crews that used their vehicles to intercept the plane, the wife used the entire 11,000-foot runway and then some as she safely and miraculously landed the plane.
