A Turkish national carrier was forced to make an emergency landing in New York, as a pilot died after collapsing mid-flight, the airline said on Wednesday.

According to the airline spokesman Yahya Ustun, who wrote on X, formerly Twitter, the plane had taken off from Seattle, the western US coastal city on Tuesday evening.

“The pilot of our Airbus 350… flight TK204 from Seattle to Istanbul collapsed during the flight.

After an unsuccessful attempt to give first aid, the flight crew of another pilot and a co-pilot decided to make an emergency landing, but he died before landing,” he wrote.

Ustun added that the 59-year-old pilot had worked for the Airlines since 2007, and had passed a medical examination in March, which gave no indication of any health problems.