Ever sit next to a dead passenger on CO?
 

I was talking to a passenger in the PC who talked about how she once flew next to a passenger who passed away during flight. Despite the tragedy, she said the flight was relatively uneventful. An ambulance met the plane at its scheduled destination and the passenger was removed by the medics.

In the Houston Chronicle article about CO's pet mishap, covered in another thread, it mentions that over 8,500 pets were transported ..and unfortunately, 1 died in June. However, CO transports far more humans ...and I'd imagine people are just as fragile as pets sometimes... with deaths from time to time.

I've never had a death on a flight (although I have had medical emergencies) --have you?

I wonder if he got any bonus miles for the problem with his flight? :)

It happened to my boss on a NW flight from NRT->MSP a couple of year's ago. The guy in the row (coach) behind him had heart problems midway over the Pacific. So, they found an on-board doctor, upgraded him to biz class and about 30min later he had a heart attack and died. They covered the poor guy with blankets and reclined the seat for the rest of the flight. Then, they kept on flying for another 6+ hrs until arriving in MSP with a "slight Customs problem"!

Not me, not on CO or any other airline.

But you don't know that for sure - not the sort of thing they would announce on the PA system. Unless the dead passenger is within your vicinity you are not likely to know what is going on...maybe some of your medical emergencies ended up in death - there must be a reason why planes started having onboard defibrillators!

A couple of years ago, on a flight to Detroit, a passenger died in the row behind me. He was in the Y bulkhead and the woman next to him screamed for a flight attendant. They cleared the row out and asked if there was a doctor or EMT on board. There happened to be a few, including a heart surgeon. Was very impressive watching them work as a team. Unfortunately, the doctor said there was nothing more they could do.....He covered him with a couple of blankets and reclined the seat.

Years ago, a co-worker of mine was flying into CLE on a CO MD-80, sitting in a window seat in coach on the 3-seat side. There was noone in the middle seat. The guy on the aisle "fell asleep" about halfway into the flight. He "slept" through the landing and right up to the gate. It was only then, when the co-worker tried to get up, that he noticedthe guy wasn't asleep, but dead.

He sat there in the window seat next to the dead guy for almost an hour while the authorities went about the process of being notified and removing the body. He just didn't feel right climing over a dead body.

Personally, I would have climbed right over the seat in front of me.

I wonder how long the delay was in MSP, if any. I presume they have procedures for dealing with situations of this kind.

I always fill in the "contact" phone number on the back of the boarding pass. Do most people here?

Did the flight attendants require that the seat be returned to the upright position for landing?

Don't kick the bucket on a NW domestic flight: no blankets!

I haven't for YEARS... but they can get all that info by linking my FF number on the BP to my nwa.com profile.

Fortunately, it's still safe to die on a NW flight. It's the pillows that have been removed, not the blankets.

Given all of the delays and cancellations caused by the Mechanics' union work slowdown, though, you're much more likely to shuffle off the mortal coil while waiting to board . . .

Sometimes I pretend to be dead.
 

Just to avoid some motormouth. But I'll miraculously come alive at the end of the flight.

Haven't had any deaths on my flights, but this afternoon did experience my first medical emergency. Fortunately it was during boarding and we were still at the gate at IAH, when a passsenger in the back suddenly had a seizure. Boarding was stopped, and paramedics arrived in a few minutes. I was in F and could hear the flight attendant that were still at the front of the plane talking about it with the captain and giving him updates while the other flight attendants and a passenger who was a nurse attended to the passenger. After the paramedics arrived they took him off the plane, boarding resumed, and we departed less than 30 minutes late. By this time the weather around IAH was getting bad quickly, but we did get to takeoff and after a very bumpy flight arrived at AUS a half hour later.

Was on a KLM flight from ORD to AMS back in approx 1995, and the guy immediately behind me died. He actually didn't die until after we made an unscheduled pit-stop in Gander, and they took him off in a stretcher. He was obviously having a lot of trouble breathing, and no one could understand him (he was from Lithuania), so they made the unscheduled stop. When we finally got to Amsterdam, I inquired about him; he had died.