Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant dies after catching COVID-19 during training event
Jeff Kurtzman, a flight attendant at Hawaiian Airlines died on 21st July, after contracting the coronavirus when participating at a training event.
Sixteen others, apart from Jeff, tested positive for coronavirus after attending the course in Honolulu, organized by the airline in late June.
The airline is investigating if the cluster of cases stemmed from the training or elsewhere.
As per the CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, Peter Ingram, Kurtzman who was 60 years of age, at the time of his death, was admitted to hospital after returning home to Los Angeles, where he tested positive for COVID-19.
In an email forwarded to NBC news after they pressed the airline into issuing a statement, Ingram said that Jeff Kurtzman had worked for the airline since 1986, going on to add, “Over the past three decades Jeff had become well known to his in-flight colleagues for his passion for discovering new places, people and cultures; his terrific sense of humor and knack for easy conversation; and his caring heart. He embodied the values of aloha and malama that we hold dear.”
Ingram’s email mentioned that the company, whilst offering support to Kurtzman’s wife and family, was also monitoring employees who are recovering from coronavirus and he went on to re-iterate “we are reminded every day that this virus is serious and highly transmissible and have strengthened the mandates and protocols governing how we interact with each other at our facilities, and I urge us all to practice the utmost vigilance.”
If Kurtzman had been indeed infected with the coronavirus during the training event, the CEO’s words offer little solace to his family, and come a bit too late.
Whilst in Honolulu during the training course, Kurtzman met up with a friend Connie Florez over dinner, where he told her that some people on the training course “got a little lax on the second day, but I kept my mask on. I don’t want to get sick.”
Sadly, he could not avoid getting infected by the respiratory illness and became sick when he returned home.
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