LATAM Airlines Confirms ‘Medical Emergency’ Caused Pilot to Die

The logo of LATAM Airlines is pictured on an Airbus plane in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, on Nov. 6, 2018. Regis Duvignau/Reuters

A Chilean airline pilot had a “medical emergency” midflight between Miami and Santiago de Chile on Aug. 14, 2023.

LATAM Airlines confirmed the incident in an Aug. 16 press release (pdf).

According to LATAM Airlines, the flight was diverted to Tocumen International Airport in Panama, but despite following the “necessary protocols” to “safeguard the life of the affected pilot,” he passed after landing.

“LATAM Group is deeply saddened by this event and takes this opportunity to express our most sincere condolences to the family of our employee,” LATAM said. “We are thankful for his 25 years of service to LATAM, distinguished by his dedication, professionalism, and enthusiasm.”

Central and South American media publications such as Newsroom Panama and Radio Bío Bío identified the pilot to be 56-year-old Iván Andaur.

The Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo reported that Andaur said he was feeling unwell and collapsed on the toilet.

A nurse identified as Isador on social media, El Unverso reported, tried to revive Mr. Andaur, after suffering from symptoms similar to cardiac arrest.

In response to The Epoch Times’ request for further information, the airline said it could provide none, or confirmation of the name.

Increase in Reports of Cardiac Issues in Pilots

More frequently, there have been reports of airline pilots suffering from cardiac issues after the COVID-19 vaccine mandates in 2021.

Airline pilot Josh Yoder started U.S. Freedom Flyers in response to the federal mandates handed down by President Joe Biden that forced people to either quit their jobs or take the jab.

“It was tremendous chaos within the airline industry,” Mr. Yoder told a county commission in a government meeting in April. “I had already been seeing vaccine injuries in some of my friends who had willingly taken the shot earlier in 2021.”

Mr. Yoder discussed the vaccine injury of an agricultural pilot Cody Flint in Mississippi, who was injured by the vaccine and suffered a reaction mid-flight.

“He did what the FAA told him to do; they said the vaccine was safe and effective even though they did no safety studies whatsoever,” Mr. Yoder said.

Mr. Flint told his story at the Mississippi Capitol in March, detailing how 30 minutes after he received his first vaccine, he began having a severe headache.

“At the time, the listed possible side effects included temporary headaches and dizziness, so I assumed this was normal,” he told the audience.

The situation rapidly deteriorated, and he decided it was no longer safe to fly, he said.

“While flying only a few hundred feet above the ground, I attempted to turn around and head back to the base,” Mr. Flint said. “Within one second, I felt an extreme burst of my pressure in my head and immediately slumped over in the seat of my airplane.”

Dizzy, disorientated, and shaking, he somehow found a way to land the plane, though he said he didn’t remember any of it.

“I can only attribute the landing to muscle memory and good luck,” Mr. Flint said.

Mr. Flint went on to face multiple health problems, leaving him to have to take a drug called Diamox to reduce intracranial pressure, a drug that’s on the FAA’s list of medications pilots can’t take and fly, which was a death sentence for his career.

“As of today, I still suffer from brain fog, tinnitus, confusion, memory loss, and random bouts of dizziness,” Mr. Flint said.

Cody Flint speaks about the loss of his career due to a COVID-19 vaccine injury on the Mississippi Capitol steps on Feb. 29, 2023. Courtesy of Charlotte Stringer Photography

‘Tacit Admission’

According to Steve Kirsch, executive director of the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation, in October 2022 the FAA loosened the restrictions on what level of heart health is acceptable in a pilot by widening the range of allowable PR intervals in an electrocardiogram.

“They didn’t widen the range by a little,” Mr. Kirsch said in a previous Epoch Times article. “They widened it by a lot. It was done after the vaccine rollout.”

It was the U.S. government’s “tacit admission” that the vaccines have damaged the hearts of pilots, he said.

“Not just a few pilots,” he said. “A lot of pilots and a lot of damage.”

‘Solidarity Plane’

Though LATAM Airline didn’t answer whether it had mandated the vaccine for pilots, it did support the World Health Organization’s initiative to vaccinate as much of the population as possible.

In 2020, LATAM Airline initiated a free COVID-19 vaccine transport program called Solidarity Plane.

The flights carried vaccines, COVID tests, medicine, and masks from different parts of the world to South America.

“With the significant increase in COVID-19 infections around the world, collaboration and joint work with health authorities is more important than ever,” Andres Bianchi, chief executive of LATAM Cargo, said in a 2022 Air Cargo News press release. “For this reason, we are reaffirming our commitment to the free transport of vaccines in the domestic markets of Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru this year.”

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the stage of the flight when the pilot passed away. The Epoch Times regrets the error.