Woman claims father might still be alive if 16-hour Air Canada flight was diverted after he fell ill

A woman believes her father might still be alive if Air Canada diverted a 16-hour flight the pair was on when the elderly man started suffering a medical emergency.

Shanu Pande said she should have “banged on the cockpit,” to demand flight crew to land the plane going from India to Canada when her 83-year-old father started having chest and back pain, vomiting and uncontrolled bowel movements, according to CBC.

“He was deteriorating in front of my eyes,” Pande said of her dad Harish Pant, who was flying to Canada after achieving permanent residency.

About seven hours after taking off from Delhi in September, the elderly man started experiencing the medical issues, leading Pande to beg the cabin crew to land the plane somewhere over Europe so he could go to a hospital, the outlet reported.

But the crew rebuffed that request, she alleged, and the plane was in the air for nine more hours before landing in Montreal, its planned destination.

Paramedics attended to him there, but he died in the hospital of “presumed infarction,” which is dead heart tissue.

“I should have banged on the cockpit,” she told CBC. “Why did he have to suffer like that?”

She additionally told Business Insider that crewmembers failed to help her father while in flight when they didn’t give him medication or monitor his blood pressure.

Air Canada strongly denied Pande’s version of events.

Air Canada told People that it extends its “deepest sympathies” to the family, but “rejects any assertions that it was responsible for the customer’s death.”

“We can confirm that throughout the flight in question Air Canada’s crew properly followed the procedures for dealing with onboard medical events and provided continuous care for the passenger, including relocating him to the business cabin so he could fully recline,” the airline said, adding in consultation with ground-to-air medical personnel, diversion was not recommended.

“The individual was conscious upon arrival, where we had arranged for paramedics to meet the aircraft,” the airline also said. “Unfortunately, shortly after arrival, the passenger passed away while being attended to by the paramedics.”

After her loved one died, Pande told Business Insider that crewmembers tried to console her, but she had no interest in their sympathies.

“I told them to get away from me,” Pande told the outlet.

“I said, ‘You said this was not a life-threatening emergency … but see what you have done to my dad.’”

She is reportedly pursuing legal action against Air Canada.