A one-year-old Indian toddler died on board a Gulf Air flight that was on its way from Kochi in India's Kerala state to Bahrain's capital Manama, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing at Abu Dhabi International Airport, media reported Tuesday.
The child suddenly became sick almost halfway to Manama from Kochi Monday morning and died on board, the Khaleej Times reported.
"As the aircraft landed at Abu Dhabi International Airport, we immediately shifted the body to Shaikh Khalifa (Medical City) hospital morgue," an airline source was quoted as saying.
The source said the airline staff offloaded the luggage of the mother and child at Abu Dhabi airport and the plane left for Manama after a delay of one-and-a-half hours.
"We made all arrangements for shifting the body to the hospital morgue and took care of the mother in this time of grief," he said.
The father of the child, identified as Binoy, has been working in Bahrain for the last 10 years and the baby, identified as Hrishipria, was flying with her mother Ashwini.
The couple got married three years ago and Ashwini was residing in Bahrain with her husband but had travelled to Kerala for delivery of the baby about one-and-a-half years back. The family hails from Thrissur in central Kerala.
Binoy arrived late Monday from Bahrain and joined his wife in Abu Dhabi.