Unexpected Side Trip

I was back in the air today and heading to Houston. Sadly, we had a woman on board who became quite unwell during the first couple of hours of the flight. We paged for a doctor on board and the decision was eventually made to divert so that this passenger could get to a hospital. So about 3 hours into the flight we found ourselves landing in Keflavik in Iceland.

I’ve been to Iceland before, also in February (for a short winter break), but it was dark when we landed so I hadn't seen this view. The snow didn’t look too thick out there today, less than when I was there, but it still looked pretty cold! The landscape is lined by black volcanic beaches.

We were on the ground for just under two hours. The passenger and her family were taken away promptly by the medics but we had to wait for their bags to be removed, the plane to be refuelled and a new flight plan to be arranged. Once we were in the air again we had another 8 hours flight time to get to Houston. It was a VERY long day and we were pretty exhausted by the time we got there!  I think we were on duty for about 15 hours.

I do hope the woman will be OK and I’m glad she has some family with her. It must be hard to end up in a hospital in a strange country - not the one you are from nor where you were visiting!