Two die aboard same BA flight Nicholas Pyke and Veronica Cancio Monday January 19, 2004 The Guardian Two passengers died on board a flight from Florida to Heathrow yesterday in separate incidents - one from suspected meningitis, the other from a heart attack. The British Airways flight 208 from Miami was heavily delayed after a female passenger suffered what appeared to be a fatal heart attack, prompting an unscheduled stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Paramedics were unable to save her. Tragedy then struck a second time after the flight had resumed. Witnesses said the rear portion of the plane was curtained off before other passengers learned that a male traveller had also passed away, this time of suspected meningitis. On landing at Heathrow, the 330 passengers were detained for more than an hour by medical authorities. Those who had been seated near the man who died were given written information about meningitis before disembarking. Others were warned by the captain and told to watch for symptoms over the next 21 days. Neither victim has been named, although a fellow passenger said the first to die was a grandmother, who had been on the flight with her grandchildren. The second victim is believed to have been middle aged. Despite on-board announcements about the deaths, British Airways refused to speculate about the causes last night, saying only that they appeared to be natural. "Our thoughts and sympathies are with the relatives," said the spokeswoman. "Unfortunately we do have a number of deaths on board, although they don't happen very often. "It's very unfortunate that two occurred on the same flight. That's incredibly rare ... They were not related." There are two forms of meningitis: meningococcal meningitis associated with children and caused by bacteria, and a viral form which, although often less serious, can also be fatal. The symptoms of both include headaches, fever, drowsiness and a stiff neck. *************************************** Dr. Alastair T. Gardiner Microbial Photosynthesis Lab 217 Davidson Building IBLS-Division of Biochemistry & Mol. Biol. University of Glasgow Glasgow G12 8QQ Scotland Tel. (+44) 141 330 6449 Fax. (+44) 141 330 4620 E-mail. atg3v@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.gla.ac.uk/ibls/BMB/rjc/agardiner.html ************************************** Personal web pages at http://www.geocities.com/atg3v Have a look at my airliner photography at http://airliners.net/search/photo.search?emailsearch=atg3v@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx