New details have emerged regarding the tragic death of 63-year-old Mahasen Mohamed, who passed away aboard a Qatar Airways flight QR731 bound for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on October 31, according to Dallas local newspaper Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Passenger passed away mid-flight

Mohamed experienced a sudden medical emergency in midair when she was flying with her husband and child from Doha Hamad International Airport, Qatar, according to an airport police report.

During the flight, Mohamed reportedly collapsed at the back of the plane. A doctor traveling on board responded to the emergency, performing CPR on her for nearly an hour, but she remained unresponsive. Upon arrival at Dallas-Fort Worth, officers from the airport’s Department of Public Safety met the plane at Gate D11 of Terminal D. Despite the efforts of both the onboard doctor and the emergency responders on the ground, Mohamed was pronounced dead shortly after 09:45 local time, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

Pulmonary thromboembolism suspected in death of passenger

The Medical Examiner later determined that Mohamed’s death was caused by pulmonary thromboembolism, a condition where a blood clot blocks an artery in the lungs, often leading to fatal outcomes. Her death was classified as natural. Mohamed’s family informed officials that she had a known history of blood clots, a risk factor for pulmonary thromboembolism. They reported that she had been seated for approximately 10 hours before attempting to stand up, which may have triggered her medical crisis.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

An airport spokesperson said to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the department’s first responders were dispatched to the aircraft on a medical call. The spokesperson also indicated that Qatar Airways would be able to provide more details about what occurred on board the plane. Simple Flying has reached out to Qatar Airways for comments, but the airline has not immediately responded.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s website shows that Mohamed was a resident of Garland, a city to the northeast of Dallas that is a part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.

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Flight tracking data from Flight Aware confirmed that the plane landed at Gate D11 around the time Mohamed was declared deceased. The flight, Qatar Airways QR731, departed from Hamad International Airport (DOH) in Doha at 01:32 local time and landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) at 09:42, right on schedule. The flight time was 16 hours and 10 minutes.

A closer look at Qatar’s Boeing 777-200

According to AIRLIVE.net, the aircraft is a Boeing 777-200 with registration A7-BBB. It’s a 15.8-year-old Boeing 777-200 configured in a two-class layout with 42 business class seats and 230 economy class seats, according to the data on PlanesSpotters.net. This configuration was updated in November 2018 from a previous arrangement of 42 business and 217 economy seats. Notably, the plane also displayed a “FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022” sticker from October 2022 to March 2023.

Photo: Philip Pilosian | Shutterstock

The airline currently operates 92 Boeing 777 aircraft, including a notable subset of seven Boeing 777-200s. Despite being one of the older variants in Qatar’s fleet, the 777-200s have an average age of just 14.8 years.