An Air New Zealand flight from Los Angeles to London had to divert to Iceland because of a medical emergency. The aircraft, a Boeing 777-300, was just off the tip of Greenland when it changed course to Keflavik Airport in Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. Data on FlightAware shows the plane landed eight hours into a flight which usually takes about 10 hours. The Washington Post last year reported on the incidence of in-flight medical emergencies following a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers estimated that of the 2.75 billion total passengers who flew each year in the two years between 2008 and 2010, there were 44,000 in-flight medical emergencies.

Source: Otago Daily Times September 06, 2018 04:18 UTC