A 51-year-old Qatar Airways pilot reportedly died onboard a flight while off-duty, the 3rd unrelated airline pilot death in under a week

• A 51-year-old pilot died onboard a Qatar Airways flight on Wednesday, The Times of India reported.
• He was traveling as a passenger, and the plane was diverted 30 minutes before landing.

An off-duty pilot died onboard a Qatar Airways Airbus A350 flying from Delhi to Doha on Wednesday, The Times of India reported.

The 51-year-old had previously operated the inaugural flight of SpiceJet, an Indian budget airline, in 2005, according to the newspaper.

Flight QR579 was about 30 minutes away from landing when it was diverted to Dubai, delaying its arrival in Doha by just over an hour, per data from Flightradar24.

The pilot had fallen ill while traveling as a passenger onboard the A350, and was later declared dead, per the Times of India.

"He was very fit and his untimely demise has come as a big shock for everyone who knew him," a long-time colleague of the pilot told The Times of India.

Qatar Airways did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The pilot's death came just a day after another pilot died while captaining a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Two hours after leaving Miami, two co-pilots had to take control of the LATAM flight and divert it to Panama.

And on Thursday, a 40-year-old IndiGo pilot died at the boarding gate in Nagpur, India due to a "sudden cardiac arrest," per the Hindustan Times.

That marked the third death in three days, for what is usually a rare occurrence.