A Turkish Airlines flight en route to San Francisco International Airport was diverted earlier this month following the death of a passenger, according to the airline’s local representative and an airport official. The airline did not provide additional details about the passenger or disclose their nationality.
A Turkish Airlines flight headed to San Francisco International Airport was diverted earlier this month following the in-flight death of a passenger, according to both a local airline representative and an airport official. The airline has withheld further details about the individual and did not disclose their nationality.
Turkish Airlines Flight 79 departed Istanbul on July 13, according to flight-tracking data from FlightAware. While en route to San Francisco, an unspecified “incident” occurred over Greenland, as reported by aviation blog Aviation A2Z. Ertugrul Gulsen, the airline’s station manager at SFO, confirmed to SFGATE that the flight was diverted to Chicago O’Hare International Airport due to the passenger’s death.
Upon arrival in Chicago, the case would typically fall under the jurisdiction of the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. However, spokesperson Natalia Derevyanny told SFGATE that their office was not notified of any incident corresponding to this flight and has no record of the deceased individual.
Gulsen declined to provide additional comments regarding the deceased passenger. He did confirm that the rest of the travelers were rerouted on a separate flight, which ultimately arrived in San Francisco. Repeated inquiries sent to Turkish Airlines by email have gone unanswered.
This incident follows a similar case in October 2024, when Turkish Airlines pilot Ilcehin Pehlivan suffered a fatal medical emergency mid-flight while operating a route from Seattle.
While rare, in-flight deaths do occur. A travel medical director told Condé Nast Traveler last year that fatalities aboard commercial aircraft are “actually quite rare.” A 2021 study published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine reviewed data from approximately 1.5 billion passengers and found an all-cause mortality rate of just 0.21 per million travelers.
