BA confirms two passenger deaths on same flight

Two passengers died on board the same British Airways flight yesterday, the airline has confirmed. According to a report in The Guardian newspaper, the first passenger died of what appeared to be a heart attack; the second from meningitis. The newspaper reports that flight BA 208, from Miami to Heathrow, was badly delayed after a female passenger had a heart attack and the jet had to stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where paramedics tried in vain to save her life. After the plane had left Halifax, witnesses told the newspaper, the rear part of the plane was curtained off before passengers discovered that a man had died of suspected meningitis. All passengers on the flight were detained by medical authorities after it landed at Heathrow, and those who had been near the man were warned of the dangers of meningitis and told to watch for symptoms of the disease for the next three weeks. British Airways reportedly said that the two deaths appeared to be because of natural causes but declined to speculate further.