According to an official at the airport, 60-year-old Salama Juhri was returning home after her Umrah pilgrimage to Makkah. The Jakarta-bound flight, which had originated from Jeddah, was carrying a large number of Umrah pilgrims.
“On board Juhri developed pain in her chest and the captain diverted the flight to Colombo to give emergency medical treatment to the passenger,” the airport official in Colombo told Arab News yesterday.
Juhri, from Kalimantan in Borneo island, was traveling with her husband and some of her relatives.
On landing at Colombo airport, the airport medical staff tried their best to save Juhri’s life. However, she died on her way to hospital in the ambulance.
According to sources from Saudi Arabian Airlines, the doctor in the plane had given her treatment and the plane had made an emergency landing in Sri Lanka to administer further treatment.
The patient's husband and another woman relative also alighted from the plane.
The body was sent to the morgue of the nearest government hospital in Negombo, 10 km from the airport. The airline staff in Colombo looked after the husband, who escorted the patient to hospital.
“Now the post mortem is completed and police had given necessary clearance; the body will be flown to Jakarta early Sunday morning on a Malaysian Airlines flight,” the airline official said, adding Juhri’s husband and relative would accompany the body.