Serious incident to the Airbus A330 registered F-HHUG operated by Corsair on 17/01/2022 en route

During a night transatlantic flight between Fort-de-France and Paris-Orly, the captain felt tired at the end of the climb and lost consciousness shortly afterwards. A few minutes later, the co-pilot noticed that the captain was not responding to her questions. After two attempts to wake him up, she called in the chief purser, using the emergency phraseology to be employed in the event of incapacitation of one of the flight crew members. The chief purser arrived while the captain was gradually coming around.

An initial analysis by the chief purser led the crew to call in a doctor who was among the passengers and who diagnosed a simple vasovagal episode.

After approximately two hours and several successive rests, the captain’s state of health deteriorated further while the aeroplane was in the middle of the Atlantic, roughly equidistant from Fort-de-France and the Azores archipelago.

When the doctor suspected a stroke and informed the co-pilot, the latter reassigned roles within the crew and decided on an emergency diversion to Lajes (Azores). Even though the hospitalisation facility at destination proved to be adequate, this criterion was not part of the decision-making process, as the co-pilot did not have this information.

The co-pilot landed at Lajes, where the captain was taken care of and hospitalised for several days.