An international Delta flight traveling from Mexico to Seattle made an emergency landing in California Thursday, after a passenger was found unresponsive during the flight, CBS reported.
The pilot requested a priority landing due to the emergency and the plane landed 20 minutes later at the nearest airport.
The unidentified passenger, who was traveling on an evening flight from Cabo to Seattle, was pronounced dead by emergency personnel at Sacramento International Airport approximately shortly after the initial discovery, according to CBS.
The passenger appeared to have died of natural causes, the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office, who retrieved the body, said, according to CBS. (RELATED: Delta To Pay Managers Bonuses To Account For Pandemic Pay Cuts)
A flight was diverted to Sacramento International Airport Thursday night after a passenger died on board. https://t.co/q9z1NPBQU9
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) March 5, 2021
The official cause of death was not yet released.
Pilots typically request priority landings for medical emergencies and technological failures. For example, a Seattle-bound Boeing plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Utah in late February after it was reportedly experiencing engine trouble.
Two other planes were also forced to make emergency landings in February. A New York-bound plane landed in Belgium after the plane dropped engine debris over a town in the Netherlands.
The other incident involved a United Airlines jet headed to Honolulu that had to make an emergency landing after a large piece of debris broke off the plane, barley missing a house in Denver.