Originally Posted by
B747-437B
One reason that airlines are reluctant to divert in the case of seizures lately is that there has been been a spurt in terms of passengers "faking" seizures while overflying certain countries and then claiming asylum upon landing.
It is a very tiny minority of cases that are actually fakes but enough that the immigration authorities have warned airlines to beware of these.
Reeaaly that's interesting, I never thought of people faking in order to land somewhere in particular. I wonder what the actual policy is there though, don't the airlines have an obligation to divert for medical emergencies? What if someone died due to lack of treatment because the flight was not diverted.