Singapore Airlines refuses to divert after passenger suffers heart attack?

Another reason not to fly this airline unless you are in the luxury end.

@Blandon - Cabin crew have been trained to First Responder standards on every airline I've been involved with.

I think it's notable that this story seems to have originated in the UK's Daily Mail, which I'd characterise as not being one to let facts get in the way of a good story. It sadly doesn't surprise me that they chose to run a story based on second-hand information, when the individual mainly involved has said he doesn't want to talk about it. There are always going to two sides to every story, and we're not even getting reliable reports of one of them. It would be interesting to know exactly what happened, and why whatever decisions were made were made, but I suspect we won't find out unless it does end up in court.

@Sean- I wonder how many of the flight crew are trained as cardiologists or even paramedics? I'd hate to have a junior flight attendant deciding my fate. I also have to wonder if the afflicted person was the CEO of Singapore Airlines, would things have been different?

@Nick - No airlines that I am aware of take out insurance to cover these (indeed, no insurance company that I am aware of even offers this coverage). Instead, they self-insure, usually with a contingency amount budgeted per block hour operated that is based upon the statistical need for medical diversions. Fuel dumping depends upon the aircraft weight at the time of the incident. If the aircraft is overweight, fuel needs to be either burned off or dumped in order to get the aircraft below the maximum landing weight (MLW). You can always land an aircraft above MLW but it then requires a heavy landing check to be signed off by a type-qualified engineer before it can take off again. In the case of an A380, this is not always a practical option, especially at offline airports. Indeed, landing a significantly overweight A380 (which is what it would be immediately following departure on a longhaul flight) at any airport poses considerable risk to all passengers. @caelus - With all due respect sir, every case is different and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The primary objective of inflight care is to ensure the survival of the passenger until they can be transferred into a suitable medical facility on ground. The crew will make a decision based upon the best information available to them and that keeps in mind the welfare not only of the individual passenger but also of the entire aircraft full of passengers that they are responsible for. Often this decision is not crystal clear but is made upon the balance of probabilities. In such a situation, the primary focus is on survival. If there was a clear prognosis of permanent disability, I would expect the crew to factor that into their decision matrix. That said, I have personally supported every crew member that reported to me who made a decision that resulted in the passenger's survival and will continue to do so.