A lawsuit has been filed in the United States against Qatar Airways by the family of Dr Asoka Jayaweera, a Sri Lankan-born cardiologist who passed away onboard a flight from Los Angeles to Sri Lanka in 2023.

According to international media reports, Dr Jayaweera, a resident of South California, had boarded a Sri Lanka-bound Qatar Airways flight at Los Angeles International Airport on 1 August 2023. Around two and a half hours into the flight, he reportedly began choking after being denied the vegetarian meal he requested.

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed by his son Surya Jayaweera in July 2025 and later transferred to the U.S. Federal Court in Central California, alleges that the airline’s negligence directly led to the 83-year-old doctor’s death.

The complaint claims that the “strict vegetarian” doctor was told his preferred meal was unavailable and was instead advised to “eat around” the meat in a regular meal. Shortly after doing so, he began choking. Despite in-flight medical assistance and remote guidance from MedAire, his oxygen saturation reportedly remained dangerously low.

The lawsuit states that although the flight was over Wisconsin at the time of the incident, crew members informed Jayaweera’s companion that the aircraft could not be diverted as it was travelling over the Arctic Ocean.

The flight was eventually diverted to Edinburgh, Scotland, where Dr Jayaweera was hospitalised but succumbed to aspiration pneumonia on 3 August 2023.

His family accuses Qatar Airways of negligence and failing to prioritise an emergency landing that could have saved his life.

An obituary published on ELanka.com in August 2023 noted that Dr Asoka “Jay” Jayaweera was 83 at the time of his passing and is survived by his daughter, Ashan (AJ) Jayaweera Chamberlin, and his son, Surya Kirthi Jayaweera.