A flight from New York to Ecuador was forced to make an emergency landing in Charleston after a passenger suffered from a medical emergency.

A passenger started to suffer from shortness of breath on a TAME Airlines Airbus A330-200 heading to Ecuador. The plane was carrying 70 passengers and nine crew members when it was diverted to Joint Base Charleston according to Charleston International Airport spokeswoman Charlene Gunnells who spoke to the Associated Press.

The base received a notification just after 2 a.m. that the flight from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport would be making an emergency landing because a female on board was having trouble breathing.

Joint Base Charleston and Charleston International Airport share runways. Since Charleston International Airport doesn't have ground crews available between midnight and 4 a.m. as there are no flights scheduled during this time, the air base handled the emergency situation.

Both U.S. Air Force emergency personnel and Charleston County emergency Medical Services provided medical treatment for the ill passenger. According to Gunnells, the medical personnel told the woman that she should be taken to a local hospital to continue to be treated but she declined and chose to stay on the flight. Following the incident, the plane was refueled and continued to Ecuador at around 4:30 a.m.

According to Gunnells, aircraft emergency landings are pretty common and can occur for a number of reasons, one of them being medical emergencies. In 2013, 34 flights were diverted to Charleston and there have been seven diversion to the airport so far this year.