Plane Diverts to Billings After Passenger's Death

May 19, 2020

The Alaska Airline flight diverted to Billings over the weekend was due to a death on board, the county coroner said Monday.

The flight from New York to Seattle landed in Billings Sunday afternoon.

The 85-year-old woman had a "cardiac event" on the plane and efforts to revive her, including by a doctor on board, were unsuccessful, Yellowstone County Coroner Cliff Mahoney said.

Mahoney identified the woman as Brooklyn resident Ann Balsamo. She had multiple underlying medical conditions and died of cardiac arrest, the coroner said.

Before landing, the plane had diverted to Billings because of the medical emergency. The plane landed at about 1:30 p.m.

The woman's body was removed and the aircraft resumed flight, according to according to Kevin Ploehn, director of aviation and transit for the Billings Logan International Airport.

The woman was one of 70 passengers on an Airbus A321, the airport director said. Ploehn had initially identified it as an Airbus A300 before discovering that plane model was inaccurately listed in a report about the incident. The A321 has a seating configuration for up to 187 people, according to Ploehn.

Retrospective: Billings Logan International Airport

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