Saudia Capt dies on duty
It is true that Saudia pilots do not have any medical insurance. For a while, they were insured with MedGulf, and so carried that Insurance card with them wherever they travelled. However, this was cancelled about 2 years ago. This insurance was not replaced with any other medical insurance, unless pilots paid for their own medical insurance. This is very wrong as the pilots fly all over the world and they should be medically insured by the Airline while they are on duty. In other instances, they have had to pay for their own medical bills when abroad and have then had to reclaim these expenses on return to Saudi Arabia. Although this should be a straight forward procedure, it very rarely is, and the Airline decides for itself how much it will reimburse. This is always less than the amount of the actual medical expenses. Within Kingdom, when collecting prescription drugs for crew or family, you frequently have to go to several hospitals in order to obtain the drugs. This is again because you will get to one hospital, and they refuse to supply the prescription because Saudia have not paid their bills. The health of the pilots - and their families - should not be at the mercy of whether of not Saudia have paid their bills. The airline should give them independent medical insurance which is honoured in whichever countries they have to operate. If this had been done, Capt. Mattar who tragically died while on duty would most probably have been ok. The medical practitioners involved were also at fault, but the main issue here is that Saudia does not take care of its own flight crew, who are responsible for hundreds of lives every day.