German man, 63, coughs up liters of blood through his mouth and nose on Lufthansa flight & dies. Airliner gave the green-light for the visibly sick man to stay on flight.
What killed him? A 63 year old passenger on board a Lufthansa flight from Thailand to Germany died Thursday, after his fellow travelers watched in horror as blood gushed out of his mouth and nose.
The unidentified 63-year-old German man was seen boarding the Airbus A380 in Bangkok shortly before midnight visibly sick, with ‘cold sweats’ and ‘breathing much too quickly,’ Karin Missfelder told Swiss tabloid, Blick.
At first, she said, his Filipina wife claimed they had to rush to catch the flight — which is why he wasn’t feeling well.
Horror as man dies on Lufthansa flight from Bangkok to Munich https://t.co/yZAjg6fYgF
— Tamarastar100 (@TamaraStar100) February 9, 2024
Why did Lufthansa give visibly sick passenger the green-light to fly?
Despite the man obviously looking unwell, Lufthansa gave the man the green-light to travel.
After watching the man for a few moments, Missfelder — who is a nursing specialist at University Hospital in Zurich — intervened and informed a flight attendant that the passenger needed to be examined by a doctor.
A young Polish man answered the call, but he reportedly only asked the man how he was feeling, felt his pulse and said he was OK.
But as the plane took off, his health went quickly downhill.
‘They gave him a little chamomile tea, but he already spit blood into the bag that his wife held out to him,’ said Missfelder’s husband, Martin.
Soon, blood started spilling out of the 63 year old man’s mouth and nose.
‘It was absolute horror, everyone was screaming,’ Martin said.
He claimed that the man lost liters of blood, some of which splattered the walls of the plane.
For about half an hour afterward, flight attendants tried to perform CPR and made ‘amateurish’ attempts at resuscitation — even as the nurse said she knew it was hopeless.
When he finally went still and the captain announced the man’s death, ‘it was dead quiet on board,’ she said.
Staff then carried the man’s body into the galley of the plane, as it turned and headed back to Thailand.
A $11.45 voucher
Flight data showed the flight leaving Bangkok at 11:50 p.m. Thursday and landing back in Thailand at 8:28 a.m. Friday.
There, the passengers said they had to wait two hours without any guidance from Lufthansa before they were finally booked on another flight to Germany, with a stopover in Hong Kong.
Passengers also claim they were offered ‘a 10-franc voucher ($11.45 USD) Bild reported. It was not clear from local reports what the voucher was intended for.
But for Missfelder, the worst part was that the man’s wife now had to go through customs alone.
She said she regrets that she did not try to help.
‘I should have intervened, but I saw that a doctor was looking after him, so I didn’t want to get involved,’ she said, noting that ‘the man looked so bad, I don’t understand why the captain took off.’
Thoracic aorta aneurysm likely cause of death
A spokesperson for Lufthansa gave a statement via the dailymail: ‘We confirm that on 8 February 2024 on flight LH773 (Airbus A380) from Bangkok to Munich a medical emergency of a passenger occurred on board.
‘Although immediate and comprehensive first aid measures were taken by the crew and a doctor on board, the passenger died during the flight.
‘After 1.5 hours of flight time, the crew decided to return to Bangkok, where the aircraft landed normally and safely.
‘There, the instructions of the medical emergency services and the Thai authorities were followed. The passengers on this flight have since been rebooked on other alternative flights as it has been cancelled.
‘Our thoughts are with the relatives of the deceased passenger. We also regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers of this flight.
‘Please understand that we are generally cannot provide any further details in the event of medical emergencies for reasons of privacy.’
Thai authorities have yet to say what led to the passengers demise.
Curios as to what may have killed the passenger, this author reached out to a doctor friend who responded, ‘ruptured aortic aneurysm or stomach ulcer which eroded into Thoracic aorta or Ebola.’
Pressing if Lufthansa bore any liability for the man’s death, the doctor friend replied, ‘He was a dead man walking…’
