Incident: Aeroflot A332 over Atlantic on Oct 8th 2009, medical emergency refused by USA
An Aeroflot Airbus A330-200, registration VQ-BBF performing flight SU-334 (dep Oct 7th) from Havana (Cuba) to Moscow Sheremetyevo (Russia), was enroute overhead the Atlantic at FL350 about 320nm southeast of New York, when the crew talking very good English reported a passenger (German citizen) had become sick and requested to divert to New York’s JFK Airport, but changed their diversion destination to Toronto,ON (Canada) just before reaching the top of descent into JFK about 120nm southeast of JFK. The airplane landed safely on Toronto’s runway 24R about 2.5 hours after the first decision to divert and about 4.5 hours after departure. The passenger was taken to a local hospital.
Passengers reported, that the German became pale about 30 minutes into the flight initially raising suspicions of being sea sick, but then began to vomit blood about 2 hours into the flight. Two doctors on board provided first aid. The crew decided to divert to New York, but later announced, that their flight wasn’t accepted into the United States and they’d need to divert to Toronto.
The airplane reached Moscow with a delay of 3.5 hours.
The German passenger is reported on the way to recovery.
Granted, a lot of things have been lifted, but we still have an embargo in play with Cuba, especially with travel. Now, I know that it’s hard for yanks to travel Cuba, but I am not sure on what the policies are for flights coming into and people entering the country from Cuba. For the treatment of the person, he would have to enter the country (read: clear customs), even if it is an emergency.
Current US policy vs. Medical Emergency… Tough one to call.
It would’ve required a lot of short-term political maneuvering to get passenger and his companions cleared to enter into the country from a country where they aren’t allowed to.
there are alot more airports besides JFK that he could have requested to land at. Strange that they want to land in the middle of the most populated part of our country and no where else. Besides they are better off being 3.5 hours late than being indef late as their plane sits wedged into the side of one of our sky scrappers.
protecting our country from third world losers is not nonsense, alot of countries have demonstrated unreliability, Cuba being one of them, the burden isn’t outs to prove they are safe to let land in our country, the burden is theirs to prove they are not a threat in any way shape or form to land in out country, and land in the middle of a highly populated area. you got sick passengers who need medical attention, ok land in an area that poses no threat to large numbers of innocent citizens.
and they were so sick, they flew several hundred miles further and are doing fine. and be thankful we let you fly over our country to get to canada in the first place, france wouldnt let us fly over them back in the lybia incident, sure we get upset but we understand.
besides if we are such a bad country why do hundreds of Cubans die trying to get out of their country and to come to ours? Don’t forget, we are the good guys, even Cubans know it. although they do make a good run and cigar.
So, the definition of a terrorist country is a country from which illegal immigrants migrate, and a country is not a bad country if illegal immigrants migrate to it… gotcha.
Hey a**, I’ve overflown Cuba many times with the proper permits. You don’t know what you are talking about. Havana Center is as competent as any Center in the US. If you want to get to Central\South America from the eastern US, you fly over Cuba. It happens every day, look at the flights out of MIA and FLL going south. Get a clue!
The fact is MeekRN doesn’t really know the difference between a terrorist country and a poor country with a bad government. (So is Haiti a terrorist country? Lotta people want to get outta there.) He’s not making a point, because he hasn’t thought it through yet. Sometimes I wonder if he’s drunk when he spouts off like this.
So don’t get your knickers in a twist and start dignifying his remarks.
If this were about security, then we would be more consistent, like always letting Russian planes land, or never, regardless of the flight’s point of origin. If the flight behaves itself in traffic, and they don’t need to disembark the plane at JFK, then what possible risk would you get from this Aeroflot vs. another?
No, it’s obvious this is only about our 50-year-old political stance on Cuba.
the bottom line is they are not welcome to land in our country, its a privilege not a right to land here, they knew better than to ask, besides there are several hospitals near any major airport especially in the north east. If you have a problem with it, take it up with the white house not me, its their policy not mine, I just agree with it.
No, the bottom line is that the way we treat another country (like Russia) does affect the way they’ll treat us. That’s the foundation of diplomacy, and should restrain our choice of international policies. The political stance against Cuba originated more than 50 years ago, and IMHO has outlived its relevance. Cuba is not a threat, and our embargo is not changing any minds down there. Time to review.
In the meantime, it is certainly no skin off our noses if an Aeroflot jet is granted permission to drop in with an emergency medical case, and as a humanitarian gesture it could pay dividends. Instead we’re punishing a planeload of Russians for having friendly relations with Cuba. That doesn’t make any sense.
That poor German probebly could not have afforded medical treatment in the US anyway. He is probebly thankful they went to Canada.
I think a good possibility is, ATC asked if he had insurance. No insurance, permission to land denied.
Since there are daily scheduled flights from Miami to Havana and other points in Cuba. Why is it a problem for the flight to land just because it departed Cuba?
I sure hope our resident terrorism expert never gets i’ll on a US-South America flight or a US-Far East flight and has to endure being delayed emergency landing by Cuba, Venezuala or Canada.
The comment about being thankful for overfly privileges is just too funny. It sure would raise the costs if US airlines had to fly around Canada Cuba etc instead of over.
