A plane in the Turkish Airlines envoy was forced to make an emergency landing after the pilot tragically fainted and later passed away in the cockpit during the flight.

The pilot was reported to be ill and yet chose to fly the Airbus A350 aircraft from Seattle, US to Istanbul, Turkey. He was identified as 59-year-old Captain Ilcehin Pehlivan.

The airline confirmed that the co-pilot took over the controls of Flight TK204 immediately upon noticing that the first-aid being administered to the captain wasn’t working.

“When first medical intervention to our captain on the plane was ineffective, the cockpit crew…decided to make an emergency landing, but our captain lost his life before landing,” read the official communication from Media Relations VP at Turkish Airlines.

The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at New York’s JFK Airport and plans were initiated to fly the passengers to Turkey from there.

The plane left Seattle on Tuesday evening and during the flight’s progress, the pilot seemingly encroached on the Canadian airspace of Nunavut before the copilot took over.

I paid Nairobi agent 100k for visa, got denied; paid another agent 150k, got banned

Captain Ilcehin Pehlivan has served at Turkish Airlines since 2007. In March, he did a regular health check which showed no possible symptoms that could affect his job.

The cause of his death has not officially been released. As a general rule of thumb, all pilots have to undergo medical exams after every 12 months while those aged 40 and above visit their doctors biannually.