Qatar Airways: Choking Passenger Gets 8-Hour Arctic Scenic Tour
In August 2023, Asoka Jayaweera, a strict vegetarian flying Qatar Airways from Los Angeles to Sri Lanka via Doha, got a crash course in airline meal roulette. After being told they ran out of vegetarian options, Asoka was handed a regular meal and told to 'eat around' the meat. Spoiler: this went south fast when he started choking about 2.5 hours into the 15-hour flight. Oxygen was administered, but the plane kept cruising over the Arctic Circle for eight hours before finally diverting to Edinburgh. Asoka lost consciousness five hours in and sadly died from aspiration pneumonia the next day. His son, Surya, is now suing Qatar Airways for more than the $175,000 limit under Montreal Convention, wondering why an emergency isn't exactly emergency enough to interrupt an airline’s scenic detour. Qatar Airways stayed silent — because who wants to comment on an 8-hour wait to call a paramedic?
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When you start choking on a Qatar Airways flight and the new in-flight entertainment is an involuntary holdover Arctic tour lasting eight hours, you realize their definition of 'emergency landing' might be 'please wait patiently by the bar.'
Qatar Airways turned a choking incident into a 15-hour thriller. Spoiler: no commercial breaks, lots of Arctic views, and a suspiciously calm attitude towards 'immediate' emergencies.
Strict vegetarian denied veggie meal, told to 'eat around' meat, chokes, then gets served an 8-hour delay treat over the Arctic. Welcome to flying with less care than your local fast food joint.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 10/10/2025 | Author: Pete Syme
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