AA PHL-based FA dies (Coronavirus / COVID-19); others infected
 

Factual questions here. First, what was the cause of death? Second, if it's Covid-19, do we know where he may have been exposed?

There is obviously great cause for concern, and flight attendants are clearly at high risk due to their exposure to the public and close quarters. But I'm not sure until we get more facts it deserves the 'You Fly, You Die' headline. Let's keep this in perspective as we learn more and base things on the facts not just catchy headlines.

Firstly, I wish the family and co-workers my condolences during this hard time. Never easy for anyone.

Secondly, does AA have any responsibility to inform the hotels that the person may have stayed at in the last week or two during his layovers (if he had any)?

I don't know about legal responsibility, but good practice (and good ethical judgment) would be to inform the hotels that he stayed at, if any, so that they can notify staff that cleaned the room, brought room service if he got it, checked him in, and possibly the driver of the shuttle. The network gets very broad, as well, because they'd have to consider cabin crew and flight crew he worked with, potentially gate agents working the flights, other crew in the crew lounge, and even passengers on the flights he worked.

There isn't much that can actually be done, other than to tell all of those people that they may have been exposed, and to quarantine for two weeks since the time of exposure (which many may be doing anyway), and monitor for symptoms and act according to CDC guidelines.

Finally, my heart goes out to his family and friends. This is such a scary time.

Does AA have an employee face mask policy? Cathay has allowed flight attendants to wear masks during the epidemic and the Cathay flight I was on after this all started everyone was wearing their masks. I haven’t seen or heard anything similar from AA. Admittedly masks are viewed differently in American culture, but now might be a good time to adjust how we view normal and acceptable.

FA have both high risk of being exposed and high likelihood of exposing others, and a mask can certainly decrease at least the second factor (maybe the first, depending on the type of mask).

Not a great article...........because it largely relies on the FA death possible from COVID-10 with no real data on that main point

USA Today is reporting that the test came back positive for Coronavirus.

American Airlines flight attendant dies of coronavirus, elevating fears in the indust
 

Godspeed. Sure it won't be the last. But I do empathize with those who were exposed en masse. *And will be, with the plan now to fire back up sooner than later.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...es/2923372001/

Not sure of the policy in PA, but I found out last night that here in OH if an employee is confirmed to have Covid-19 the CDC will do due diligence to not only find out every place the patient has been and every person the patient has come in contact with, but then notify those places and people. In this case, if cause of death is Covid-19, and procedures are the same, I would imagine the CDC will be in touch with AA, family members, and perhaps close friends if necessary.

Does it matter? You know there are passengers and flight attendants infecting each other on flights every day. Sooner or later some of them will start dying.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/coronavi...virus/2340165/

The CEO made it clear in his video that when people stay home, they start to worry, and the question he keeps hearing from his team is, “are we going to be OK?"
"I'm happy to report, the answer to that question is yes," Parker said in the video.

Hm, how can you be OK if you're dead?

The FA is question was 65 years old and we don't know his overall health. I see a number of older FAs that don't appear to be in good health. By all means if someone feels they are at high risk they should not be working and their employer shouldn't force them. Second, there's no way to know where he contracted the disease. People still have to buy food and daily needs.

Every day I see older, frail looking people in Publix buying beer, lottery tickets and cigarettes. If those highest at risk won't take this seriously then the death rate will continue to increase.

Lottery tickets don't place us at risk of death from Covid19.

AA does allow us to wear face masks, if we can find them.

Exactly. Based on the infection rate, the spread (esp among those involved in travel), and the law of large numbers, it's inevitable that there will be passenger and FA deaths from COVID-19, and based on how this infection has spread, it's furthermore likely that they acquired those infections while traveling (in FAs case, while working). Unlike seasonal influenza, it's not possible for employees to protect themselves by getting a vaccine (which while not completely effective in the case of the flu, dramatically reduces the severity if you do get infected). To pretend otherwise and continue to question the reality of this virus is sticking your head in the sand.

For what it's worth, my employer has asked each of us to designate a colleague as a "backup" (i.e., successor) and provide them with access to our materials so they can be available in the event we become "incapacitated". That is despite the fact that we are now all working from home. We have 30,000 staff in every age and health status, we're in an industry where we have lots of contact with large groups (at least up until 2 weeks ago), and we're located in one of the hotspots. Again, this is just basic preparedness via understanding the law of large numbers-- it's not a question of whether someone in our workgroup will be affected.

My condolences to the FA, his family and friends, and the PHL FA community.