Bermuda's unique position in the middle of the Atlantic proved lucky for three planes which had to be diverted to the Island the past ten days due to medical emergencies.

In the most recent incident, Tuesday, an Alitalia flight from Milan to Miami landed at 2 p.m. after a male passenger complained of chest pains. The MD-11 aircraft touched down with 186 passengers to allow the 41-year-old Italian and his family to disembark and rush to the hospital for treatment. Yesterday, KEMH officials said the man was successfully treated and released on the same day.

The flight continued on to Miami one hour later. The incident follows on the heels of Saturday's diversion of a KLM flight from Aruba to Amsterdam for similar reasons.

Airport General Manager James Howes told The Royal Gazette that passenger also complained of chest pains.

And last week a charter plane from the Dominican Republic was diverted to Bermuda when a scuba diver on board suffered from the bends. Mr. Howe said three emergency landing is such a short time is certainly an unusual occurrence. "We're certainly more than willing to accommodate these emergency flights," he said. "Given our location in the middle of the ocean, with no other hospital for hundreds miles, we're glad to help. But if this keeps up we'll have to paint a big Red Cross on one of our hangers."