ELAL

19 hours departure from LHR, flight arrived JFK with one passenger less, was horrible!

According to matthandy, it should be worded ike this: Someone died on my flight, I saw it and I'm really upset about it, but I feel for the family and crew.

BingBongBoy

Sad to hear someone passed away onboard... Thoughts with their family.

johan rebel

Sorry to hear that. Not nice, especially not for the deceased, but don't let it upset you too much. 160,000 odd people die every day, it is bound to happen near your sooner or later. It is the kind of thing one must learn to deal with, I'm afraid. I speak from extensive experiece.

Johan

BA5E

Oh what a sad tale, thoughts go out to his loved ones

cornishsimon

Very very sad for the family of said person as well as for the other people on the aircraft and the crew.

I have to say however from a professional point of view, being onboard an aircraft surrounded with crew who are trained in BLS and who have an AED, along with the very high chance of having other medical type people on board, if your going to sugger from a serious medical condition, and if its recoverable you are in with a much higher chance of surviving than you would be if it had happened in your own home !

Trust me, said person would of received attention much sooner onboard when compared to your average 999 wait for an ambulance, especially in rural areas of the country.

My thoughts to all concerned

cs

Raffles

Who remembers the FT frenzy a few years ago when someone died in Economy, and the crew decided to move the body into an empty middle seat in F, much to the consternation of the person in the seat next door?

I am intrigued by the OP's use of the word 'horrible'. I assume from this that the person did not naturally and quietly pass away in their sleep of old age?

J-Class

ELAL, sorry you had to go through this, but as others have noted it's not an uncommon occurence. Some ultra long haul aircraft, such as Singapore Airlines' A340-500 have a 'corpse closet' fitted, where the recently-deceased can be stored until landing away from passengers' view. If I recall correctly, BA once received a lot of publicity for giving a corpse an inflight upgrade to F.

BOH

What do you mean by "19 hours departure from LHR"?

And who was traumatised? Do you mean you were?

DYKWIA

7pm?

johnny5a

OP doesn't give a indication whether they were on the flight or not

BOH

Yes, you are no doubt right there....the lack of the :00 after the 19 threw me

Wondered if he meant the flight from boarding at LHR to deplaning in JFK had taken 19 hours due to the medical emergency or something.

RedVee

Although a few years old this article covers the eventuality quite well. 2006 data from one company extrapolated to suggest 260 such deaths annually. At the time the article was written, there was a greater chance of dying as a result of an incident in which the plane is damaged (1 in 1.3 million travellers) than dying on board from a medical incident (1 in 7.6 million).

Apols to those of you with a nervous disposition for that last factoid

mfgr

In terms of medical emergencies, my other half had a serious seizure on a BA flight ex-MUC a few years ago, which resulted in an immediate return to the airport and heavy landing 15 mins after take off.

I was on the way back from an event there, and knew many of the pax personally, and having spoke to them later, it was not a very pleasant experience for them, on top of the quite dramatic flight back to the airport.

Got to say that the BA crew were absolutely top drawer. The First Officer even came back to ask my opinion on whether this was a regular ailment, or something more dramatic that would require them to expedite a return to MUC.

I think in these instances, we forget it must be pretty traumatic for the crew too.
Two of them were sat on her to hold her down whilst another administered oxygen as her fit was so severe.

I have a feeling if that had happened on the orange peril, she'd have been offered peanuts and a coke, and they'd have rifled through her bag for the money...

BOH

^

Roger

Unnecessary, insulting and irrelevant, spoiling an otherwise interesting post.