According to PaddleYourOwnKanoo, “American Airlines flight AA715 was passing over France on Wednesday afternoon when veteran flight attendant Carol Wright collapsed in front of her colleagues. The other flight attendants immediately started emergency life support procedures and performed CPR in an attempt to save Carol as the pilots immediately diverted the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to Dublin after declaring a medical emergency.” RELATED: 12 Things in Travel You Need to Know Today


There are photos of the 787 plane landing in Dublin as well as emergency services surrounding the aircraft.


According to a passenger on the plane, @Scott_Hauser, American Airlines canceled the flight. Scott, writes: “They cancelled it after a while. Not sure of the condition of the flight attendant that fell ill.”

Unfortunately, we now know Carol’s condition as Airline insider @xJonNYC shared an internal American Airlines memo on Twitter that read:

“It is with great sadness that we share the sudden passing of PHL-based Flight Attendant and Purser Carol Wright while working a flight this morning.

Carol began her career with American Airlines 38 years ago, and she loved her profession and the many friendships she created. She is remembered as a pleasure to support and a joy to work alongside.

Any unexpected loss is extremely difficult, but please know that we are taking care of the colleagues who were flying with Carol. We are also in contact with Carol’s family and will provide for their needs and any help they require as we assist with bringing her home.

Please keep Carol’s family, friends and colleagues in your thoughts.”


As Jon wrote, it is indeed just heartbreaking. I’ve had medical emergencies onboard flights multiple times and was diverted once because of it. That flight was London to Los Angeles and we stopped in Edmonton. It’s scary. For those who are in a hurry to make a work or family function it may be aggravating but of course, it’s important keep the big picture in mind and also is why you should always leave plenty of time to get to an important event, in the event that there’s a delay, cancellation or diverted flight, as this flight ended up getting canceled, presumably because the crew timed out or they were just too traumatized to get back to work (can you blame them?)

RIP, Carol.

H/T View from the Wing

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3 Comments On "Heartbreaking: American Airlines Flight Attendant Dies on Flight to Philadelphia"
  1. Haley Wright|

    She did not “collapse”….. get your facts straight. This is Carol’s daughter by the way…. If you’re going to write an article about my deceased mother, then at least get your facts straight first. Absolutely disgusting and disrespectful

    1. Johnny Jet|

      Hi Haley

      First of all, I’m very sorry about your mother. I just lost my dad in March so I know the empty feeling. Secondly, I was just reporting based on other news stories and social. Obviously, I want to get it right so please share and I will change it or I will just delete it. Again, I’m so sorry about your mother.

  2. Carolyn Peischer|

    Please advise to me the cause of death for Carol Wright. I’m asking because my Husband lost consciousness and sequentially the cause was called a seizure. the word seizure called all sorts of complications. He is an airline employee.

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