Indian-Origin Woman In Aus Boards Flight To Visit Home For The First Time In Four Years, Dies Suddenly Inside Plane

Manpreet Kaur was suffering from tuberculosis and may have died due to a complication that arose from the condition. (Image: X)

Manpreet Kaur, an Indian-origin woman from Australia’s Melbourne, died on an international Qantas flight shortly after she boarded the flight to fly home to Punjab via New Delhi on June 20. It was the first time in four years that Manpreet was travelling home to see her family.

She did not make it as she died minutes after boarding the plane. Reports by Australian media outlets said that she died while she was fastening her seatbelt.

Her friends told Australian media outlets that 24-year-old Manpreet “felt unwell” hours before arriving at the airport but managed to board the flight but she fell to the floor and “died on the spot” as she was fastening her seatbelt.

Her flight was still attached to the boarding gate in the Melbourne airport which allowed cabin crews and emergencies to reach her but they could not save her. The reports said that Manpreet was suffering from tuberculosis, an infectious disease that mostly affects the lungs and could have likely died due to a complication that arose from the disease.

She was studying to become a chef and was working for the Australia Post. “When she got on the plane, she was struggling to put her seatbelt on. Just before her flight started, she fell in front of her seat and died on the spot,” her friend Gurdip Grewal told the Herald Sun. Her friend said Manpreet first moved to Australia in March 2020.