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A Cathay Pacific flight was diverted to Sri Lanka Friday to seek emergency medical help for a Japanese woman who was declared dead on arrival in hospital after suffering a blood clot, officials said.







A Cathay Pacific flight was diverted to Sri Lanka Friday to seek emergency medical help for a Japanese woman who was declared dead on arrival in hospital after suffering a blood clot, officials said. The 36-year-old woman was rushed to the Negombo base hospital near Sri Lanka's only international airport where doctors pronounced her dead, coroner Basil Tissera said.

"I have returned a verdict of death due to natural causes," Tissera told AFP.

He said an autopsy performed at the hospital, 45 kilometres (28 miles) north of the capital, found the woman had suffered a blood clot in her lungs or a "pulmonary thrombo-embolism."

The woman identified by medical officials as Mihoko Goto was travelling with her husband on a direct flight from Hong Kong to Johannesburg when she was taken ill.

Cathay Pacific country manager Ed Higgs said flight CX 749 declared a medical emergency and landed in Colombo.

"We also sent a Japanese-speaking member of the cabin crew to help," Higgs said. "Ca