There was a moment of panic
Olivier Vergnault Senior Reporter
07:43, 14 Sep 2025
The ambulance waiting at Zagreb airport after an EasyJet flight from Bodrum to Bristol Airport had to be diverted to Croatia when an elderly female passenger suffered a medical episode(Image: Bristol Live)
A holidaymaker has described the moment her flight to Bristol Airport had to be diverted to another country when a passenger suffered a suspected heart attack and needed urgent medical attention.
The passenger was on the Easyjet flight EZY2854 / U22854 from Bodrum in Turkey to Bristol Airport when her plane had to take an emergency detour and land at Zagreb Pleso airport instead when the elderly passenger suffered a medical episode and appeared to stop breathing.
She told Bristol Live how she recalled seeing an elderly woman in a wheelchair at the airport with her husband and a young boy.
The passenger from Clevedon in North Somerset, said there was a short delay initially departing Bodrum as it took two assistants to help bring the elderly woman in a wheelchair on board.
She described the moment of panic that spread through the plane when in mid air the young boy travelling with the elderly couple started shouting that ‘she’s not breathing’.
The holidaymaker from Clevedon said: “At the time we were boarding the plane I just thought it was an old lady doing her thing and in my mind she was normal.
“We all boarded with no issue and after some delay we took off at 9.05pm from Turkey local time. About an hour and 45 minutes into the flight this young boy turned his head and started shouting ‘she’s not breathing’.
“He ran down the aisle of the plane panicking everyone and ran to the back which is when the flight attendants understood that the old woman was not breathing.”
The holidaymaker said she remembers one of the flight attendants “spamming the assist button for attention” to get help for the elderly woman.
She added: “The older couple were two rows in front of me. I saw it all. The flight attendants then dragged the woman into the aisle to start CPR.
“The flight attendants asked if anyone was a paramedic or something of sorts to make themselves known. Two guys came forward and were doing compressions for around 10 minutes.”
The Clevedon local said it was then that the plane started descending fast “almost like it was falling out of the sky”.
“We were going down fast,” she added.
“We landed after about 18 minutes of this going on. The woman was cold white. We landed very fast and everyone braced from how fast the landing was.”
She said that emergency services were waiting on the runway and paramedics rushed in and took the elderly lady away while her family members were also taken off the flight.
“We had landed in Zagreb in Croatia and were stuck there for two hours as they needed to find her luggage and the family members’ stuff,” the Clevedon eyewitness added.
“We where then taken back to Bristol after it all. It was about 1.40am when we landed back home. That’s when the flight assistant told me the elderly woman had died.”
A spokesperson for easyJet said a passenger on the flight needed ”urgent medical attention”.
“The passenger was met by medical services on arrival and the flight continued to Bristol,” they said.
“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is always easyJet’s highest priority.”