After Flight Departs Seattle, Pilot Collapses and Dies

A flight that departed Seattle bound for Istanbul was forced to divert to New York on Tuesday night after the pilot died. A rep for Turkish Airlines says Ilcehin Pehlivan, 59, lost consciousness during the flight, with the BBC reporting the pilot "appears to have got into trouble" while the plane was flying over the Canadian territory of Nunavut. "After an unsuccessful attempt to give first aid, the flight crew of another pilot and a co-pilot decided to make an emergency landing, but he died before landing," the rep notes.

The rep says Pehlivan had been with the airline for 17 years and had passed his March medical exam, reports CBS News. The FAA confirmed the Airbus 350 "landed safely at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York around 6am local time on Wednesday, October 9, after the one of the pilots suffered a medical emergency." The New York Times reports the plane had been in the air for about eight hours. (More Turkish Airlines stories.)