Sudanase woman dies at Hyderabad airport before boarding a flight home

Hyderabad: A critically ill Sudanese national, hoping to make it back home on a special repatriation flight on Sunday from the Shamshabad airport here, passed away just a little over an hour before boarding her flight.

The incident occurred at about 8 am, according to the Shamshabad airport police. The special flight, taking Sudanese nationals stuck in Hyderabad following the COVID-19 lockdown, was scheduled to take off at 9.30 am.

Police identified the deceased as Heiba Mohamed Taha Ali, 62, who was in Hyderabad for treatment for cancer over the past few months. She was accompanied by her relative and was to board a chartered Badr Airlines flight to Sudan via Muscat.

According to the police, the woman fell unconscious near the boarding gate and was rushed to Apollo Hospital at the airport where the doctors pronounced her brought dead.

“The woman was brought in a wheelchair to the airport by a relative who was travelling with her. After completing the departure formalities, she was taken to the boarding gate, where she fell from the wheelchair and became unconscious. Though she was rushed to the airport hospital, she had passed away,” the police said.

“The woman suffering from cancer and was in a critical condition,” the police added.

Her companion, a relative, later boarded the flight and left for Sudan along with 160 others.