Qantas plane in urgent landing at Sydney after captain suffers chest pains

The first officer of a Qantas 737 requested a priority landing at Sydney Airport on Monday morning after the plane’s captain experienced chest pains and flight attendants prepared to use a defibrillator on him.

Qantas Flight QF505 was en route from Brisbane when the captain suffered chest pains as the aircraft was several hundred kilometres north of Sydney.

After exiting a holding pattern, the captain asked QF505’s customer service manager to use a defibrillator on him. The defibrillator’s pads were put on the captain in the cockpit, but the equipment was not used.

A short time later, the first officer, who was the pilot flying while the captain was being assisted, notified air traffic controllers of the medical emergency, requesting that the landing of the Boeing 737-800 be expedited due to the midair situation.

The first officer declared a PAN to air traffic control, which stands for “possible assistance needed”, during the midair medical emergency.

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The Qantas aircraft was carrying 127 passengers and six crew during the flight, which took an hour and 50 minutes. The aircraft has 12 business class and 162 economy seats.

After landing about 9am, QF505’s captain managed to taxi the aircraft to a terminal gate at Sydney Airport before he was met by paramedics and rushed to a nearby hospital. It is not possible to taxi the aircraft from the first officer’s seat.

Qantas confirmed that one of its pilots experienced chest pains during the QF505 flight from Brisbane to Sydney on Monday. “The other pilot was operating the aircraft at the time and landed the aircraft into Sydney as normal. The pilot was treated by paramedics at the gate and transferred to hospital,” it said in a statement.