This is absolutely heart-wrenching for any parent to go through. He was just a boy!
New York Daily News reports a 16-year-old boy who uses a wheelchair died half an hour into his first ever airplane flight Saturday morning in Spokane Wash.The unidentified boy suffered from multiple pre-existing conditions, Spokane Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer told the Daily News. He declined to identify the conditions and said an autopsy is expected to be done Sunday to determine the cause of death.The boy died on a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Atlanta. Within 30 minutes of the flight the boy went into cardiac arrest and was unconscious, Schaeffer said.Family members and volunteers immediately began to try to revive the 16 year-old and they rotated in and out in hopes of resuscitating him but he did not respond, Schaeffer said.The plane was grounded at Spokane International Airport and emergency crews responded, Schaffer said. He was pronounced dead in the plane, he said.The boy was traveling with his mother, grandmother and a younger brother, he said. They were visiting his father who serves in the Army. The family had been at the McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma and was planning to relocate to Atlanta, Schaeffer said.This was the first time the boy had flown in a plane, Schaeffer said.“The family was confident based on a physician’s consultation that he was safe to fly,” he said.Delta spokesman Michael Thomas says there were 258 passengers on the Boeing 767 plane.
