ISLAMABAD: An Indian passenger plane had a ‘medical emergency’ landing at the Jinnah International Airport Karachi at 0012 hours on Monday and left for its destination, Doha (Qatar), after around a four-hour stopover.

The pilot of a Doha-bound Air Indigo flight, which took off from Delhi, was 16 nautical miles east of Panjgur, Balochistan when he made the emergency call requesting a doctor and ambulance, an Aviation Division statement said.

“The pilot requested to divert the plane, which carried 163 passengers, to Karachi because of the sickness of a passenger,” it added.

The pilot asked that the patient, a 60-year-old Nigerian national (identified as Abdullah), was not breathing and had no pulse.

Following the medical inspection, the Air Indigo flight left for its destination at 4:06 am, with the body of the ill-fated Nigerian national on board.

IndiGo, which is India’s biggest airline, also diverted a plane to Karachi due to a “technical defect” in July 2022. The incident at that time was the second such incident for an Indian carrier involving an unscheduled landing in less than two weeks.

The flight was meant to go to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates from the southern city of Hyderabad. It was not immediately clear when the incident occurred.

“IndiGo flight 6E-1406, operating from Sharjah to Hyderabad was diverted to Karachi. The pilot observed a technical defect,” IndiGo said in a statement to the media on July 17, 2022.

Moreover, a Boeing 737 aircraft of SpiceJet from New Delhi to Dubai made an emergency landing in Karachi on July 5, 2022, due to a fuel indicator light malfunctioning, prompting the airlines’ watchdog to issue a warning notice.