Brief by Shorts91 Newsdesk / 07:41am on 08 Oct 2025,Wednesday India Global
An 85-year-old vegetarian passenger, Dr. Asoka Jayaweera, reportedly died on a Qatar Airways flight from Los Angeles to Colombo after being served a meat-based meal. Despite pre-ordering a vegetarian meal, the flight crew allegedly told him to "eat around" the meat. While attempting to do so, Dr. Jayaweera began choking, and despite medical assistance, he never regained consciousness. The lawsuit filed by his family accuses Qatar Airways of negligence and wrongful death, citing a failure in meal service and inadequate medical response. The family also claims the flight could have been diverted to a closer airport, but instead, it continued to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was pronounced dead. The cause of death was aspiration pneumonia.
