Fri 2 Dec 2016 21.28 EST
Pilot suffers heart attack at Glasgow airport as he prepares to take off with 128 aboard
KLM captain on Amsterdam route was resuscitated by crew and a passenger after becoming unwell while heading for runway
The pilot of a plane carrying 128 people suffered a heart attack as he taxied to the runway at
Glasgow airport.
The captain of the KLM aircraft became unwell as he was about to leave for Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. He was resuscitated by the crew with the help of a passenger.
Firefighters from Glasgow airport helped take the Dutch pilot off the plane, where he was met by ambulance crews and taken to the Golden Jubilee hospital in Clydebank.
The co-pilot of the plane took the aircraft back to the gate. The flight was scheduled to leave at 4.30pm, but was cancelled after the emergency. Passengers on board had their flights re-booked.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...rt-attack-glasgow-airport-take-off-128-aboard
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Follow-up update to the above story of a pilot who had sudden cardiac arrest...
He was healthy and had passed a routine complete physical in the month
prior to his sudden cardiac arrest.
The pilot was old, under a lot of stress, a smoker, family history of sudden cardiac arrest & heart attacks, and had
not been recently vaccinated in 2016.
January of 2023, after several decades of
increasing pilot sudden cardiac arrests/heart attacks...
The FAA in October
loosened its medical certification guidelines for pilots with heart block, also known as AV block, based on recommendations from the agency’s cardiology consultants.
AV block can make it difficult for one’s heart to pump blood effectively by delaying or blocking the electrical signal that controls one’s heartbeat. It is classified as first, second or third degree and is often diagnosed with an electrocardiogram test, also referred to as an EKG or ECG, which measures the heart’s electrical activity.
A normal EKG result is generally defined as having a PR interval — how long it takes the electrical signal to travel from the top part of the heart to the bottom — of between 120 and 200 milliseconds. A PR interval of more than 200 milliseconds typically indicates AV block. However, first-degree AV block only delays the electrical signal, rather than blocking it, and often does not have noticeable effects.
“In an otherwise healthy heart, this is usually a benign condition and rarely causes any symptoms,” said Dr. Roland Assi, a cardiac surgeon and assistant professor at Yale University. “In general, it does not require specific treatment besides a complete evaluation by a physician.”
Dr. Eric Adler, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, said it is
not uncommon for people to have such delays.
https://www.faa.gov/ame_guide/media/archives.pdf
Simply, pilots with serious medical conditions are allowed to fly passenger airplanes just as long as they are under proper medical care and/or medication.
There's an increasing number of pilots with heart disease but within the norm of the increasing heart disease in society.
Are pilots more prone to heart disease ?
Heart disease is the #1 cause of disease-related death in pilots & astronauts in the world and coronary artery disease (CAD) is found in 85% of pilot autopsies after fatal accidents.
Thus, sudden cardiac arrests/heart attacks have been a growing problem for pilots & astronauts for several decades and
we do know why !!!
Scary statistic.
wrbtrader