Unscheduled Landings for Medical Reasons: A Five-Year Survey of the Experience at American Airlines

This report deals with the incidence and causes of unscheduled landings for medical reasons made by American Airlines planes during the 5-year period, 1964–1968. An unscheduled landing in this sense is a landing made optionally at the discretion of the crew in order to deplane a passenger who, because of some illness, infirmity or accident, should not continue on to the scheduled destination of the flight. This type of landing must not be confused with an emergency landing which is made when something occurs that threatens the airworthiness of the plane. The unscheduled landings are sometimes made on the initiative of the passenger. The passenger may ask for a landing and if he supports his request with sufficiently cogent reasons he may persuade the crew. At other times, the landing is made at the initiative of the crew. In such a case, one or more of the crew members who are attending to and observing an ill, infirm or stricken passenger decide that they can no longer cope with the situation or no longer take the responsibility for the welfare or life of the passenger.