BOISE, Idaho: A plane carrying 161 passengers was forced to make an emergency landing after the pilot suffered what was later proved to be a fatal heart attack.
Idaho officials have identified the United Airlines captain who died after suffering a mid-flight heart attack as 63-year-old Henry Skillern of Humble, Texas.
Ada County Coroner Erwin Sonnenberg performed an autopsy on Skillern late Friday morning and confirmed that he died at a Boise hospital of a heart attack.
The captain was piloting a flight from Houston to Seattle when the emergency occurred Thursday and an off-duty pilot took over control of the plane. Two Madigan Army Medical Center doctors onboard performed CPR, according to a spokesman for the hospital at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Passenger Ken Martin told Seattle TV station KOMO a first-year resident doctor sitting next to him volunteered to help perform CPR.
She told Martin the pilot appeared to weigh over 300 pounds and was taken into the first class cabin where CPR was performed.
Pilot who had cardiac arrest midair is dead
