An Envoy Air flight returned to Chicago shortly after takeoff on Saturday night time after a pilot was incapacitated and later died, the provider stated Tuesday.

“Regardless of heroic efforts by these on board and first responders on the bottom, our colleague handed away on the hospital,” Envoy Air, a regional provider owned by American Airlines, stated in a press release. “We’re deeply saddened and are doing all we are able to to help his household and our colleagues at the moment.”

Capt. Ric Wilson, vp of Envoy’s flight operations, stated in a be aware to employees that the pilot was a captain in coaching.

Envoy didn’t touch upon the reason for the medical emergency. The Air Line Pilots Affiliation, the union which represents Envoy’s pilots, did not remark.

Envoy Air Flight 3556, an Embraer E175, flying for dad or mum firm American Airlines‘ American Eagle returned to Chicago O’Hare Worldwide Airport at 7:57 p.m. native time, 37 minutes after departing for Columbus, Ohio, in line with FlightRadar24.

An audio recording of messages to air site visitors controllers signifies “captain is incapacitated,” in line with ATCLive, which has an archive on its web site. “We’ll want paramedics,” stated the particular person on the recording, who gave the impression to be one other pilot on the flight.

 Industrial jetliners are crewed by a minimal of two pilots.

The Federal Aviation Administration stated it’s investigating and a spokeswoman stated that such incidents are uncommon.