US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Organ Delivery Flight -- 8/23/05

Interesting experience today on US 949 PHL-LAX:

GAs seemed more interested than usual in expediting boarding. They specifically announced that boarding needed to be completed in 10-12 minutes. During boarding, an FA kept open a spot in the F overhead bin.

Just before door closing, a car pulled up below the jetway and someone climbed up the stairs. Then, an FA put a box marked "HUMAN EYES FOR TRANSPLANT -- DONOR ORGANS" in the reserved F overhead.

We pushed immediately (and early), and barely stopped. We cut ahead of 14 planes (that I could see) lined up for 27L, and were off the ground in about 10 mins. from pushback. Arrival at LAX was about 20-25 mins ahead of schedule.

(BTW, no, I didn't spend 4+ hours with eyeballs 3 feet above me. Right after takeoff, the FAs moved the box into the F galley (where, I presume, it was kept refrigerated?).

Now for the weird part: when I got off (from row 3, so very early), the box marked with the warning labels was sitting on the gate podium - - UNATTENDED!!! :confused:

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PS -- Kudos to US for a rare but welcome treat: 2 consecutive days, 2 transcons in/out PHL, both early. 8/22 US 18 LAX-PHL was 30 mins early (and no wait for a gate!). F cabin FAs were terrific on both.

But that said: $600-$700 for domestic F, with that lousy meal, is an embarassment. If I didn't hate the A319 (an RJ on steroids, with the worst domestic F cabin IMO), I would have flown UA.

been on a "lifeguard" flight before as well and it broke much the same way. Priority for takeoff and landing, and heard the clearances for direct routings on channel 9 (UA).

I few years ago I checked ahead to see if my ALB-LGA flight was on time. It was the last flight of the night. It was running an hour late (LGA effect) so I took my time and got to the airport an hour before the "new" time.

I get to the gate only to be told that the flight had just left. I was not happy. For once I checked ahead and adjusted my schedule according to what they told me. When they told me they got expedited clearence into LGA due to human organs being onboard, I was much calmer. I just sulked my way down to Hertz.

I've been on two US Express RJ flights carrying Human Eyes. Once in 2000 IND-BOS, we were somewhat hurried boarding, we "cut" in front of a bunch of other planes lined up for takeoff, and made what seemed to be record time. We came pretty much straight in to Boston without circling around to the east or coming down Revere Beach, something I hadn't experienced before. We landed and went very quickly right to the "gate"--the plane parked right outside the glass doors at downstairs gate B9, much closer to the building than seemed usual (I did the IND-BOS ERJ quite a bit back then). The eye package was in the hold below and was the very first thing off the plane, before the door was even opened. They rushed it inside the terminal, and then who knows where it went--probably the Mass. Eye and Ear or something.

The other Human Eyes shipment was CAK-PHL last winter--I saw them at the ticket counter and it seemed like we got special handling into PHL as well.

It's fantastic that they can use these donor parts to do such amazing things....

As plat stated, you were onboard a "Lifeguard" flight. Human organs are carried free of charge, and the flight they are travelling on is given a lot of priority. You pretty much get direct clearance to your destination and aren't subject to any kind of ground or air holds. The normal storage place for transport is the valet closet on mainline. They are packed in dry ice so no further refrigeration is needed.

I was on a flight from PHL to MUC (first Envoy trip :) ) and I saw the little cooler "Human Eyes for Transplant." It made me wonder how long the "shelf" life of the corneas would be. I looked it up later and it was 3 to 7 days depending on how they were preserved.

Was on a flight from ABE to PIT earlier this year and saw the eyes cooler strapped into seat 1A. Didn't seem to be any quicker trip, though.

Thanks, all.

One funny thing: I had been booked on UA 99, scheduled out at 6:20p (20 minutes earlier than US 949). There was a mess on the Blue Route, and I got stuck for 45 minutes on my way to PHL, so I had by travel agent move me to the later flight for a bit of cushion...

I checked Flighttracker when I got home, and the Lifeguard status must have helped: 949 was off the ground ahead of 99, and back in LA earlier too.

I was on a similar eye transplant flight to PHL/LAX 2 years ago and we departed on schedule but arrived 65 minutes early. That was obviously the best flight ever. I traveled PHL/LAX last week with a plane change in CLT on return and all flights were on time with the CLT/PHL arriving 30 min early. It can be done!

Now for the weird part: when I got off (from row 3, so very early), the box marked with the warning labels was sitting on the gate podium - - UNATTENDED!!! .

If they had a nurse accompany the donor eyes, Medicare or private insurance would refuse to pay the costs. In fact, every year they CUT payment. In other words, like Northwest, they cut pay but there are no negotiations involved.

My kids and I were booked ORF-PHL-CDG in January. After arriving at the airport I saw that all flights through PHL were marked delayed or cancelled due to weather there, including ours. There was no fudge factor on our itinerary, if we were late into PHL it would have been another day before we could have flown to Paris.

I called the airline to discuss alternatives and the agent said "that's weird, now the flight is showing On Time." Sure enough, the displays in the terminal changed and a few minutes later they announced that the flight was boarding. Turns out that we were now designated a 'lifeguard' flight - human organs were en route to PHL! I think we were the only flight arriving on time in PHL that day.

Not to be morbid, but has anyone seen an organ other than eyes?

Not to be morbid, but has anyone seen an organ other than eyes?

Generally all other organs are procured and transplanted within a few hours. Heart and lung must be within a few hours; kidneys ideally under 6 hours, and liver the same. Organs that are recovered from life-supported donors must be transplanted quickly & these are usually sent via ambulance or contracted air transport if necessary to send them further away. A good share of transplants are done in the same institution that procures the organ. In the case of bone, tissue, or eyes (for corneal transplant) there is a much longer window of time (many hours) and these can be safely sent via commerical transport.

As a little aside...we wouldn't want send a priority item like a heart through PHL baggage would we??? :confused: (OK - I might get some flack for that...it's a little like a cheap shot)

The normal storage place for transport is the valet closet on mainline.

you mean with the coats??????

I was on flight 638 this morning (ORD-EWR). I was listening to channel 9 and we had call sign "United 638 Lifeguard". We were given priority status to depart and seemed like everything was a straight shot in.

I was unfamiliar with this designation, until today. Of course, I arrived at my destination and the first thing I did was check FT for info....

I never saw the organ(s) or anything else. I was in first class and the plane was a 757. They may have already loaded and I was one of the first to unload, so did not see anything there either.

Thanks United for Channel 9.

Not to be morbid, but has anyone seen an organ other than eyes?
Yeah, once "saw a kidney" on the gate podium at DCA that had come off a flight from LGA. It was there with the GA for about 5 minutes before a messenger came for it. It was a big box with clear markings: Human Kidney for Transplant...

Richmond VA is home to http://www.unos.org/ which is the national organ clearing house (or at least a regional HQ) so I encounter this very very often. I can actually say that I look forward to seeing someone rushing past with a styrofoam box. (I hope that doesn't sound shallow- I think they are doing a great service!).

It always reminds me of when I was flying my Cessna 172 from Charlottsville VA to Lynchburg VA. I was 10 - 12 minutes from landing at LYH when Peagsus (the UVA flight copter) took off from Lynchburg General... It was on the deck at UVA before I was on the ground at LYH... Amazing prioity ATC handling (and speed).

Thought I'd bump this with a story from a flight today - it was the 11:20 CLT-GSO mainline (only mainline out of 6 segments this weekend) and I noticed as I walked on that there was a cooler with "HUman eye tissue" on it in the coat closet.

After reading this thread I thought that we'd be pretty well expedited, but we ended up taking a usual amount of time to board and waited behind four planes for takeoff.

So, it seems that the organ thing doesn;t always guarantee the quick boarding and departure.

I kept wishing US had the channel 9 thing so I could listen in.

Interesting posts- I'm an ophthalmologist and have performed a cornea transplant myself. Corneas can be preserved for 3-7 days as mentioned previously so I'm surprised that the flight was expedited; other organs must be transported immediately.

When I was a medical student I went for a organ "harvest" with my surgery team. An ambulance took us from our hospital's emergency room to PHL where we were driven to the charter terminal (right after terminal E, this was before terminal F was completed), we jumped onto a puddlehopper, and flew 45 min somewhere into rural Pennsylvania (to this day I don't even know where). We did the surgery to remove a liver from some poor guy who got into a car accident. By the time it was all over and we flew back to PHL six hours later, it was about 5 AM and I got to carry the liver to the OR for the transplant (which had to be done the same day).

Transplants are obviously very expensive when everything is taken into account- frequently they use charter planes and helicopters, I think it makes much more sense to use commercial flights if available. (And I think it's great that the airlines do this to help out)

Now if they would just speed departure when there's an ophthalmologist on the plane.... :D :D :D

Not to be morbid, but has anyone seen an organ other than eyes?


I have been told that blood was being put onboard a NW flight a few years back. I don't remember if we got there any faster or not though. I have also been on a DL flight ATL-BDL where a coffin and remaining organs were unloaded from the baggage hold. There were a lot of shocked faces in the aisle as they watched that go down the conveyor.

Sorry, that was morbid.

I kept wishing US had the channel 9 thing so I could listen in.

What is that??

What is that??

On UA, at the pilot's discretion, channel 9 can be activated, so that passengers can listen in on the radio communications.

All mainline United flights offer free audio at all times during the flight. One of those channels is "Channel 9" also called 'From the Cockpit' which is whatever the pilots are monitoring at the time (there is a 4 second delay, from what friends tell me) and it is turned on/off at the Captain's discretion.

when flying United, the first thing I do after stowing my bag is fling on the headsets & plug into Channel 9. If I don't hear the Ground Frequency (normally the ground controllers talking to other planes) then I ask the Flight Attendants if they'll beg the captain to turn it on for me. Normally a few mins later you can hear the ATC :-)

UA is the only airline in the world to offer this service fleet-wide.

Wow, that's rather amazing, thanks for the explanation!