Plane passengers were left “traumatised” yesterday when a German man began coughing up “litres of blood” in front of his wife before collapsing and dying while the plane was in mid-air.
The 63-year-old has not so far been named and was reported to have boarded a Lufthansa flight from Bangkok to Munich while he was visibly unwell. It is said that during the flight his condition rapidly worsened.
Fellow passenger Martin Missfelder from Zurich told Swiss outlet Blick: “It was absolute horror, everyone was screaming”.
The German man, who was on the flight with his wife, was suffering with “cold sweats” and was “breathing much too quickly” when other passengers rushed to his aid, offering him refreshments and taking his pulse, according to reports.
As the flight took off his condition deteriorated quickly and a “gush of blood” spewed from his nose and mouth as he tried to spit into a bag.
His wife had initially told cabin crew that her husband was feeling under the weather because they had had to run to make the flight.
“A flight attendant then reacted and asked him if he was okay, she was very worried”, said Swiss passenger Martin’s nursing specialist wife Karin, who was sat with her husband in the row behind the couple.
However, when the German was given the all-clear to stay on the flight, Karin stepped in and told cabin crew that the man urgently needed a doctor.
The pilot then took over the situation and called out for a doctor over the tannoy. Following his call, a 30-year-old Polish medic that spoke “poor English” emerged, took the man’s pulse and reportedly signalled that he was ok.
Martin added: “They then gave him a little chamomile tea, but he was already spitting blood into the bag that his wife held out to him.”
However, moments after the flight took off, the gush of blood ran out of the man’s face and flight attendants rushed to help him. He was said to have lost “litres” of blood, which lined the inside of the aircraft.
Ms Missfelder said that flight staff made “amateurish” resuscitation efforts for around 30 minutes before it became clear that the German man could not be revived.
In the aftermath of the incident, Ms Misssfelder said it was “dead quiet on board”. The deceased man was carried into the galley and the plane had to return to Bangkok with the captain announcing that there had been a death on the flight.
After the flight returned to Thailand, passengers complained that they were left without any direction or sense of what to do.
Others noted that the wife of the deceased man had to walk alone through customs as they were rebooked on another flight.
Mr Missfelder told the Swiss outlet: “She stood there all alone and apathetic and had to endure all the formalities.” He added that it was “unacceptable” that “30 traumatised passengers” were left to wait around following such a tragedy without any guidance from staff.
Passengers also claim that they were offered a 10-franc voucher (£9.06), although it’s unclear what this was for.
Express.co.uk has approached Lufthansa for comment.
