Air India passenger found dead in seat after flight lands in Lucknow: 'Not even unbuckled his seatbelt'

As the Air India flight from Delhi taxied to a halt in Lucknow on Friday morning, crew members tried to wake a passenger who hadn’t moved during the journey. The seatbelt around him was still fastened. He didn’t respond.

The passenger, later identified as Asifullah Ansari, was declared dead onboard by doctors present on flight AI2845. The plane had landed at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport at 8:10 am.

Officials noted that Ansari appeared to have died midair. The exact cause of death is not yet known and will be determined after the postmortem. Police have begun a formal investigation into the incident.

This is the second health-related episode involving Air India this month. Earlier, an 82-year-old woman suffered a brain stroke and had to be hospitalized following a fall at Delhi airport. Her family alleged that Air India failed to provide a pre-booked wheelchair, forcing her to walk despite her condition.

“The passenger waited but no wheelchair was provided by the Air India staff,” the family claimed.

Air India denied the accusation, saying, “Allegations that the passenger waited for an hour for the wheelchair are baseless.”

The airline has not issued a statement yet regarding Friday’s death onboard flight AI2845.