{"id":277467,"date":"2026-06-25T03:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/277467\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T03:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:33:11","slug":"air-canada-flight-ac7664-from-newark-airport-diverts-to-boston-after-captain-suffers-medical-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/277467\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Canada Flight AC7664 from Newark Airport diverts to Boston after captain suffers medical episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) — A horrifying mid-air emergency unfolded when a plane heading from Newark to Canada was diverted to Boston after the captain experienced a medical episode during the flight.<\/p>\n

Air Canada Flight AC7664, a flight operated by its regional partner PAL Airlines, was heading from Newark Liberty International Airport to Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Officials say that during the flight, the captain experienced a medical episode and was removed from the flight deck.<\/p>\n

A passenger on the flight who spoke to ABC News<\/a> revealed harrowing details of the emergency.<\/p>\n

“The flight started swerving violently. Within a few moments, flight attendants entered the cockpit frantically, and a few moments later he was dragging one of the pilots out of the cockpit,” said the passenger, Rodney McDonald.<\/p>\n

He said the pilot appeared to have some sort of medical episode. He and other passengers jumped in to help the crew.<\/p>\n

“It was really horrifying. Myself and about four others worked to get him under control. It was a fairly strenuous 40 minutes keeping him down,” McDonald said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The first officer then took control of the aircraft, a De Havilland Q400, and diverted the flight to Boston, where it landed safely with 61 customers on board.<\/p>\n

“Every thought goes through your mind. You start praying. My boys instantly started praying… so I’m told. I was at the front of the plane. I’m just grateful for how it all ended.”<\/p>\n

Pilots are trained to fly aircrafts and land safely without the assistance of a second pilot.<\/p>\n

Passengers say the captain was not coherent until the emergency landing when he appeared to come out of the medical episode.<\/p>\n

Those on the flight say they used seatbelts to restrain his arms and legs.<\/p>\n

Medical experts do advise that if you are ever in that situation and someone appears to be having a seizure, it is best not to hold them down so as to avoid further injury but instead clear the area of sharp objects and turn the person gently on their side while keeping their airway clear.<\/p>\n

Video shows first responders carefully removing the pilot from the aircraft. Authorities say he was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where he is receiving medical treatment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Work is now underway by the airline to provide the impacted customers with travel arrangements to complete their journeys as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

———<\/p>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2026 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) — A horrifying mid-air emergency unfolded when a plane heading from Newark to Canada…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[106667,9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-277467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-106667","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}