A Delta Air Lines flight was forced to divert to Sacramento on Thursday evening after a passenger died during the trip.<\/p>\n
The flight was en route to Seattle after taking off from Cabo, Mexico when it was forced to land in Sacramento around 7pm.<\/p>\n
The unidentified individual became unresponsive on the flight and was pronounced dead at the scene by airport fire personnel.<\/p>\n
The Sacramento County coroner’s office told CBS Sacramento\u00a0that the individual appeared to die from natural causes.<\/p>\n
Sacramento International Airport was likely chosen as the landing spot due to where the flight was in its trip.<\/p>\n
There is no indication the passenger had COVID-19 symptoms.<\/p>\n
In December, a United Airlines flight was diverted to New Orleans after a man had an emergency on a flight and later died.<\/p>\n
The New York Times reports the man’s wife told emergency personnel that the man had COVID-19 symptoms.<\/p>\n
The flight attendants from the plane were forced to go into 14-day quarantines, while United Airlines worked with the CDC to contact passengers who may have been exposed.<\/p>\n
According to Newsweek, a coroner listed COVID-19 as a cause of death for the 69-year-old man.<\/p>\n
International airline travelers who are at least two years old need to have a negative COVID-19 test within three days of a flight before entering the United States.<\/p>\n
Joe Biden’s administration is considering adding similar rules to airline travel for domestic flights, which Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian has pushed against.<\/p>\n
‘It will not keep domestic flyers safer,’ Bastian told CNN\u00a0in February. ‘It would set us back another year in the recovery.’<\/p>\n
Transmission of COVID-19 on planes is not high despite the tight space, as planes have air quality filters on par with hospitals.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Delta will not book passengers in the middle seats of flights until at least April, the only United States airline maintaining that restriction from earlier in the pandemic.<\/p>\n