I heard the question posed on an Australian radio show this week and numerous answers were given by the public. One presenter claimed that a friend of his (an airline steward) was working on a flight where an elderly passenger died and the decision was made to put a sleep mask on her and cover her with a blanket. For the rest of the flight the cabin crew simply pretended she was asleep (after quietly confirming with the man next to her that he was ok with the arrangement).
Other protocols offered by the public phoning in were as follows:
Put the corpse in a toilet and mark it as occupied.
Move the body to the back few rows where there is a curtain that can be drawn around the corpse.
Put the deceased in a body bag and leave it at the rear of the plane (the bag could not be zipped until the person was officially pronounced dead).
Put the deceased on a fold-away stretcher and store them at the back of the plane.
There seems to be a number of different ways suggested, some of which would seem to indicate a ‘do what you can’ policy rather than strict guidelines.
What’s the Straight Dope here? Are there official guidelines that vary from carrier to carrier or country to country or do the cabin crew just make it up on the spot?
I don’t know that there is a universal solution, but we met an airline pilot, for British Air, who had this happen to an elderly gentleman on a flight of his. His wife basically refused to believe he was dead, so they kept him there and tried to keep it quiet. I don’t think your solutions 2,3 and 4 will work - planes I’ve been on lately don’t have any room in the back to store corpses. I’m not aware that planes carry body bags - probably not needed since they stopped serving airline food.
I suspect if it happens early in the flight the plane will return to its origin and unload the body - so I think the question is still interesting if it is over the ocean or close to its destination.
Moving a body is hard work, so I would advocate covering them in a blanket unless they decided to be all inconvenient and shuffle off in an aisle.
I think the difficulty of moving a corpse from their seat to the back of the plane along those narrow aisles would be more hassle and distress for other passengers than simply covering them over with a blanket.
I listened to that radio show too. Some of suggestions were based on different sized aircraft. Large international aircraft were the ones that were supposed to have more room available. In fact a Jet Star flight attendant was one of the callers and she said they have a different procedure depending on what aircraft they were flying (she said whether it was domestic or international but with that airline that also means a smaller A320 for domestic or an A330 for international.) I can’t remember what the specifics were of the international one but for a domestic flight I think she said they just put sunnies and a blanket on the deceased.
I’m not so sure about that. I think while the passenger is dying they would do what they can to get them on the ground and to a hospital but if someone just dies and they are able to confirm the death on board there wouldn’t be any compelling reason to turn back.
I would imagine that leaving the deceased in their seat is the preferred option but if they void their bowels at the time of death I certainly wouldn’t want to be near them for a long-haul flight.
Just have someone “escort” them to the toilet, clean them up, and escort them back to their seat. Most passengers would probably assume they were drunk.
It would be easier if the airlines just instituted a policy saying if a passenger is going to expire on a flight they should do it in the lavatory. That way stewardesses don’t have to haul a corpse through the aisle and if they void their bowels when they die they’re in the perfect place for it.
Personally, I would so not be OK with that. I’d help cram her into the overhead before I’d sit next to her the rest of the flight. And honey, park the drink cart right there, the house is buying.
a) If they died in their seat: Fasten their seat belt, cover them with a blanket, & proceed to the destination as normal.
b) If they died elsewhere on board: drag them to the nearest seat & do step a)
c) To the degree possible, reseat anyone nearby who objects to sitting near a deader.
d) To make c) easier, make as little fuss as possible while doing a & b.
I actually had an old woman die on one of my flights. She died after she was pre-boarded and just as we were starting regular boarding. We called 911 & stopped the boarding. The paramedics showed up in a few minutes, but it was obvious to the untrained observer that she was history long before that. They took the body off, then we continued boarding & left about 45 minutes late.
I don’t know whether the family got her fare back.
My old boss had that happen to him on a flight from India to the US. The elderly woman sitting next him popped her clogs mid-flight. The plane was completely full (Air India) and they didn’t want to drag her down the aisle to the lavatory so they just covered her with a blanket and he had to sit next to her for the rest of the flight. Luckily, he had the aisle seat so he didn’t have climb over her when he had to go to the bathroom. And he did get a free international ticket out of the deal…
Since I know this question will be asked, if someone dies on an airplane on a treadmill, they become a zombie. They are very annoying and demand the whole armrest.
I have done a lot of business traveling at various times in my life. I have been on a few flights where someone needed medical attention and one where someone died. There will be an announcement over the PA asking if there is anyone with medical training on board. The time that the guy couldn’t be revived, they left him in his seat until we landed and then took him off of the plane with his new widow before the rest of us. They were up in First Class so I didn’t see it but someone who did told me what went down. This was a trans-Pacific flight and it was an elderly couple.
Sitting next to the dead doesn’t bother me a bit - I’ve done it on a number of occasions. The dead do not bother me. Well, the gory dead bother me due to mess, odor, icky fluids, etc. but that’s not what we’re taking about here.
