Grieving daughter says father might still be alive if Air Canada had diverted long-haul flight

Shanu Pande says she had been looking forward to the trip for years — a flight that would bring her father to Canada from India after he finally obtained permanent residency status. 

But the September trip took a sharp turn when Harish Pant, 83, developed severe medical symptoms: chest pain, back pain, vomiting, loss of bowel control and the inability to stand up.

"He was deteriorating in front of my eyes," said Pande, who was accompanying her father.

Flight AC051 had left Delhi shortly after midnight local time. When Pant's symptoms started seven hours later, it was over Europe. Pande says she pleaded with the cabin crew to divert the plane and land in order to get her father to a hospital.

Instead, the flight stayed on course for nine more hours, travelling over Ireland, across the Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Canada before touching ground in Montreal. Paramedics were waiting — but Pant died as they worked on him.

"I was very hysterical," said Pande. "My mind was gone at this point."

Her father was officially pronounced dead at a Montreal hospital from a "presumed infarction" — dead heart tissue.

Two months later, Pande says the piercing grief has given way to anger.   

"He was at the mercy of the pilot and Air Canada people," she told Go Public. "They were inhumane and callous."

Air Canada declined an on-camera interview request.

In an email to Go Public, spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick wrote that Air Canada extends its deepest sympathies to Pant's family, but also "categorically rejects any assertions that it was responsible for the customer's death."

The airline's crew "properly followed the procedures" for dealing with onboard medical emergencies, wrote Fitzpatrick. When asked, he declined to explain the procedures.

Fitzpatrick also said reports from the crew differed "in several important respects" from that of his family, regarding the timing of events and how the situation was handled.

Trying to figure out how often in-flight medical emergencies occur on Canadian flights — and what determines whether an airline will divert a plane — can be like flying through thick fog without radar.