A passenger on board a Qatar Airways flight from Sao Paolo, Brazil, to Doha was confirmed dead on arrival last week after the plane carried out an emergency diversion to Riyadh for medical reasons, the airline has told Doha News.
On April 30, Qatar Airways flight 922 was diverted to KSA’s capital because a passenger had become seriously unwell.
The airline is not commenting on the cause of death, but UAE-based Emirates 24/7 is reporting that a male Tanzanian passenger fell ill after attempting to smuggle drugs by swallowing packets of narcotics.
The publication cites an online Saudi newspaper Sabq as a source for its story. It reports:
“After landing, examination showed that the passenger died 50 minutes earlier. Several capsules of drugs were found hidden in his clothes and in the toilet.
It was learned later that the passenger had concealed the narcotics inside his stomach…it is believed that several other drug capsules remained inside his stomach after his death.”
In the past few years, Qatar has been struggling to combat its reputation as an increasingly popular transit point for drug trafficking.
Just this week, the Land Customs Department reported seizing more than 100kg of hashish and a large number of narcotic pills in three separate operations, Gulf Times reports.
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Credit: Photo by Caribb