CObigtimefan

Co-worker just had another passenger pass-away on a long-haul. Person was found an hour before landing when they wake you for breakfast - was pretty eerie for sure and shook him up.

I was curious if others have had this happen? What took place?

rjw242

You mean someone died on your co-worker's flight, not your co-worker himself?

CObigtimefan

:-:Thanks for the clarification - no, not coworker.

opushomes

On a flight in 2009 the lady in 1B passed away about an hour out of San Pedro Sula. They called for medical personnel and a number came forward including a doctor and a number of nurses. Seems that there are a large number of medical mission type travelers into Honduras and some of them were on my flight.

After removing the woman from the aisle after efforts to revive her ceased, she was placed back into 1B and covered with blankets from those of us in FC. Crew held the passengers until local EMTs came aboard after landing. They just stood near the woman and the passengers all filed by.

I happened to be in 3B.

TrinaLC

Yikes, was there anyone in 1A?!!

B747-437B

Sadly, I've had to deal with 3 such incidents in the last two years.

First one was very sad and in my opinion, criminal. The lady had been diagnosed with terminal cancer while on a visit to the UK and had been deemed unfit to travel. Her family however wanted her to return to her home country to die rather than in the UK as she already held a return air ticket and they could not afford to ship the body back as cargo. As the airline, we required a doctor's note clearing her for travel. This was provided, and our staff even called the number on the doctor's letterhead to confirm that everything was in order and to verify any special handling instructions. On the day of departure, the lady seemed a bit disoriented but keeping in mind the doctor's clearance and her husband's advice that she had taken a sedative, was cleared to travel. Once airborne, she was fine initially and even ate the first meal before going to sleep and covering herself with a blanket. Sometime during the night she had difficulty breathing and passed away. Her husband actually noticed her breathing difficulties but declined to notify the crew as he was afraid we would divert and cause additional costs to the family. When the crew came around to do compliance checks at top of descent, he calmly stated that she had died about 3 hours earlier. On arrival, the matter was passed on to the local police who asked the husband to give a statement. While left unattended to complete his statement, he fled the police station. The body was subsequently claimed by the brother of the deceased. When attempting to contact the doctor named on the letterhead to advise of the death, it turns out that the letter was a forgery using a modified telephone number on a genuine NHS letterhead - set up by the husband. Local police declined to prosecute as they claimed the matter was out of their jurisdiction. The file was passed to CPS in the UK but they also declined to prosecute as all parties were non-UK citizens/residents and the actual death occurred outside the UK. Basically the guy got away with murder.

The second and third instances actually occurred on the same flight. I guess it never rains but it pours!!! While boarding, a middle-aged gentleman appeared to be suffering from shortness of breath. When the crew approached him, he claimed to be asthmatic but that his inhaler was packed in his checked luggage. We had the rampers pull his bag but he was unable to locate the inhaler inside. His condition was getting progressively worse, so we decided to offload him as a precaution and call for paramedics to check him out. Just as the paramedics arrived he had a heart attack. He died on the way to hospital. His family later collected his luggage and in contrast to the other family, actually sent a note of thanks to the crew for their alertness in noticing his condition and their steps to get him medical attention.

The flight finally departed about 30 minutes late and arrived safely at destination. While disembarking, one passenger (who was carrying 7 bags of Duty Free shopping in addition to a backpack and a laptop) suffered an aneurysm on the air stairs and fell forward hitting his head against multiple steps on the way. He was pronounced dead on the scene, but the airline's liability was cleared once the autopsy detected the aneurysm as cause of death.

CObigtimefan

Unbelievable!

gosha83

Ditto...Unreal. As is the fact that the other two deaths happened around the same flight.

SanDiego1K

Years ago, we were flying SAN-SEA in F. A passenger collapsed in coach. Somehow, his body was brought forward to lie in the aisle in F, as it was wider, so that the FAs could perform CPR. The FAs were fantastic, continuing to perform CPR as we made an emergency landing at Portland. My husband put out his hand to help steady the FA nearest him. The EMTs came on board on landing, but had no success in reviving him. Because the death occurred on the plane, the plane had to be impounded and checked before it could be flown again. We could not be taken to a gate, and had to wait for a bus to be brought. The man was very large, and they had trouble getting him off the plane. Thus, we had to go to the rear to deplane. The entire plane load of people had to be rebooked, since we landed in Portland rather than Seattle.

opushomes

Yes, 1A was the deceased's daughter. The woman was brought on in a wheelchair and appeared quite ill. I believe that this may have been another case of someone returning home for terminal care who expired before the end of the flight.

FYI: The entire flight was full. In fact 2C was upgraded due to no seats in the back. She actually volunteered to deplane if her husband was unable to be seated. At the last minute, he filled the last vacant seat in coach. We talked for quite a while at the San Pedro Sula Airport while they awaited there transportation to Copan. I ran into them there and we had dinner together.

pinworm

It happened to my grandfather once, back in the 60's. Apparently a man sitting in the same row as my grandfather had died. The flight attendants tried to rouse him..quietly..and obviously he was dead. So they put a blanket over most of him as if he were asleep, and at the end of the flight stood at the row and rushed people out.

jamieqpr

happened to my parents twice, both times flying London - Barbados to meet a cruise ship..

both were elderly gents, both suffered massive heart attacks...

my stepdad is a doctor so on both occasion volunteered his help, one gent had clearly passed, the other he managed to revive but they later found out had died in hospital...

on both occasions my parents were given free tickets as a thank you for his efforts.

rjw242

As an aside, just yesterday I learned an interesting factoid from a doc friend (during a discussion about medical emergencies in flight): if a doctor accepts any compensation for such emergency assistance, they open themselves to malpractice suits (same as if they were treating a regular patient in their clinic or hospital). If they don't accept it, they can only be held liable for gross negligence. Laws probably differ in the UK though.

CObigtimefan

In our "sue happy" culture, this wouldn't surprise me.

BearX220

Interesting as we have had doctors here on FT complain about lack of compensation from the airline after volunteering their services in an inflight emergency.