Pilot triggers emergency landing at LAX after falling extremely ill on flight: ‘I need to go to the hospital’

A pilot’s medical emergency forced a Boston-bound flight out of Los Angeles to divert to Detroit.

Delta Air Lines Flight 437 –– a Boeing 757 –– was carrying 147 passengers from LAX to Boston on Tuesday when the captain told air traffic controllers that he needed urgent medical care and requested an immediate landing at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.

“This is the captain. I am the one who is ill. I am going to taxi the jet to the gate, and then I need to go to the hospital,” the pilot told controllers.

The air traffic controller responded, “Delta 437, you can plan an exit at Yankee Two. That’ll give you the quickest route to the gate.”

It remains unclear what specific medical issue the captain experienced.

Delta Air Lines issued an apology to passengers for the delay but declined to disclose details regarding the pilot’s condition. “We apologize to our customers for this disruption in their travels,” Delta said in a statement, according to CBS News.

Former military and commercial pilot Matthew “Whiz” Buckley told the outlet that the on-duty pilots handled the emergency “by the book.”

“In airliners, if you’re not flying, you’re the one doing the talking, because that allows, in this case, the first officer, to focus on just flying the airplane. So, yeah, that makes perfect sense as to why he’s communicating,” Buckley said.

He added that if any pilot is feeling incapacitated, it is the standard and safest protocol to divert to the nearest airport and seek medical treatment.

The airline said that the sick captain deplaned in Detroit and a replacement pilot took over the flight to Boston, which landed with a 90-minute delay.

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