A Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 (TC-JOA) from Istanbul Ataturk Airport to Montreal was forced to return to Istanbul airport after a 16-year-old girl was having a epileptic seizure shortly after take-off.
The pilots decided to return flight TK35 to Istanbul, to avoid an overweight landing the aircraft had to burn fuel. Meanwhile the situation of the girl stabilized. After seven hours of fuel burning the aircraft safely landed back at Istanbul Airport, where an ambulance was expecting the passenger.
Turkish Airlines said in a statement:
A 16-year-old passenger on our flight number TK35 to Montreal on 13 October 2017 got sick shortly after departure, as the health of our passengers is of the utmost importance we decided to return to Istanbul.
The aircraft is now holding and burning fuel until it reaches a safe landing weight. Our team has been informed that the last health condition of our passenger is very good. We will change our crew and prepare our aircraft again for a new flight to Montreal.
Finally another Airbus A330 (TC-JNZ) operated the flight to Montreal, with a delay of around 10 hours.
After more than 7 hours in the air, #TK35 now descending for Istanbul. Return due to medical emergency onboard.https://t.co/U4AHvW1v8S pic.twitter.com/gXff7798rv
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) October 13, 2017