An Air France passenger who was taken sick in the middle of a 9,000 km long-haul flight from San Francisco to Paris was so angry with the decision of the airline to divert so that she could be rushed to the hospital, she flipped the pilots and flight attendants the bird as she was taken away on a stretcher.
Flight Details
- Flight Number: AF81
- Route: San Francisco (SFO) – Paris Charles De Gaulle (CDG)
- Date: June 13, 2025
- Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
The woman’s extraordinary reaction to the crew’s eagerness to get her proper medical care before the plane crossed the Atlantic Ocean was shared by the Captain in a very blunt public address announcement to the other passengers, which left everyone on board stunned.
The ‘sassy’ announcement has now gone viral after it was recorded by content creator Ishan, who posted a video of the incident on TikTok.
Air France flight AF-81 departed San Francisco International Airport at around 9 pm on June for what should have been a 10-hour flight to Paris. The Airbus A350-900 climbed to a cruising altitude of 39,000 feet and flew northeast across the United States and into Canada.
The pilots had intended to fly the aircraft on a northerly routing across Greenland and over the Atlantic Ocean, but around five hours into the flight, the plane veered off its intended course as it headed towards the closest airport.
@ish.bish Captain wasn’t having it
♬ original sound – Ishan
At this point, the Captain explained to the pilots: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. One of our passengers needs some medical care. We asked for a doctor, but nobody was on board, so we are now diverting to St. John’s in Newfoundland, Canada.”
The announcement continued: “We will have to offload this passenger to the hospital.”
It took around two hours for the plane to get safely on the ground in St Johns, where Ishan captured the moment that a fleet of fire trucks and ambulances were waiting on the tarmac to assist the poorly passenger.
The plane then remained on the ground for around an hour and a half before continuing its journey onwards to Paris. Once back at cruising altitude, the Captain provided a very blunt update on the sick passenger’s condition that shocked everyone on board.
“You’ll be happy to learn that our passenger, which we saved her life, she was a bit angry to be offloaded from the aircraft. She gave us the finger when leaving the aircraft, and she’s still being very angry at the hospital. That’s it.”
Of course, it would be inappropriate for the pilot to share what medical condition necessitated the need to make an unscheduled stop in a remote part of Canada, but airlines are very reluctant to make medical diversions unless they absolutely have to.
In many cases, airlines have multi-million-dollar annual subscriptions with ground-based medical support companies that have aero-medicine trained physicians on-call 24/7.
Pilots and cabin crew can talk with these doctors via satellite phones whenever their advice is needed. The doctor will then review the patient’s medical history and symptoms, as well as the resources and medicines that are on board, and decide whether their condition can be safely managed on board.
If, however, in the professional opinion of the doctor, they believe that a diversion is necessary, they will work with the pilots to find a suitable diversion airport and arrange the response on the ground.
It seems from this incident that the on-call doctor wasn’t happy for the flight to cross the Atlantic Ocean without a second opinion from another healthcare professional who could assess the patient’s condition in person.
But don’t think that the decision to divert would have been taken lightly. It’s estimated that the average cost to divert an aircraft due to a medical emergency is $120,000.
The total annual cost to the airline industry for medical diversions is as high as $552 million.
Some airlines are equipping their long-haul aircraft with sophisticated telemedicine kits in an attempt to reduce the number of precautionary diversions that could have been avoided if doctors on the ground had access to the vital signs of patients.
Earlier this year, mega carrier Emirates said it would spend millions of dollars over the next few years to install new medical equipment that can transmit a wealth of patient data via Wi-Fi to a dedicated in-house medical team.
The kit includes a variety of tools to capture essential vital signs, such as a pulse oximeter, thermometer, blood pressure monitor, glucometer, and even a 12-lead telecardia electrocardiogram (ECG).
The system even includes a high-definition video conferencing facility so doctors can assess a passenger in real-time while also talking cabin crew through treatment recommendations.
I guess she wasn’t too sick to be aware that getting back from St. John’s is going to be a major and expensive PITA, not to mention whatever they’re going to bill her for the medical care.
A good lesson for passengers to be aware of: Stay quiet about not feeling well unless you are comfortable with being offloaded somewhere not of your own choosing.
The CA was doing the PA just after takeoff? ….
Aircraft don’t transmit ground data via Wi-Fi. Sorry to burst your “Emirtes Wi-Fi medical telemetry” bubble.
Good on the lady for being alert, awake, and not wanting to subject the entire aircraft to what (she felt) was a useless divert. She was taken to a hospital and now has to SOMEHOW find her way home AT HER EXPENSE. Of course they won’t divulge the nature of the “emergency” but if she’s cogent and alert and giving the finger… well… draw your own conclusions.
Moral of the story: when you board an airline you give up the right to determine where and how you’ll end up and what it will cost you. YOU may be able to afford EXCELLENT care in Canada, and a FLIGHT out later. Was that in your budget for 2025? It’s not in mine.
But the “holier than thou” attitude the airlines have is disgusting. “We made a choice. Live with it.”
Fuck a choice made by nonmedical air-cockctail-servers.
They did not make the choice, reading the FULL entry a qualified doctor did so and decided it was necessary!
So she is pissed because the pilot and crew felt she needed more care than they could provide. But if they chose not to land the plane she would be suing them for not caring that she had a medical issue. So all of you that are rushing to her defense are just as bad. No matter what the a pilot chooses to do he and the airlines are to be condemned? You are the ones making air travel so difficult. So just stay home!
I. am an internist and have answered probably 10 calls during trans oceanic flights. I was able to stabilize every patient except one young child with sustained seizures on a flight from ZRH to JFK where we diverted to Goose Bay, Labrador most “emergencies” are not true emergencies: many are anxiety, low blood sugar, headaches etc. I even responded to a patient who fainted soon after takeoff from JFK en route to CDG while we were still climbing towards Boston and was bombarded by, “should we divert to Boston” by the flight crew. I responded by saying, “give me 60 ,ore seconds”. and reassured the overdressed anxious French speaking passenger., after which I stood up and proclaimed, in French, “Messieurs et mesdames, nous allows a Paris” to the cheers and applauses of the passengers and crew. when I returned to my seat my reward was a bottle of wine!
while the patient always, always comes first being able to safely save a flight is reward enough. however, the wine was delicious
Shame on the ignorant jackass that called the flight attendants “air-cockctail-servers” [sic]! They and the pilots consulted with an MD by phone since there was no medical authority aboard. If the ill passenger had died without being rushed to hospital, not only would that have been a human tragedy, but Air France would have been deservedly condemned, and of course there would have been a major lawsuit for something like negligent manslaughter.