Originally Posted By avromark I can think of worst places other then the lav to stick a persons corpse. In some facilities they leave them in the hallways for the porters to take them away. I'd think it would be more dignified to place the body in a lav then it would be to leave it out in the open. Death can happen anywhere, in the city you'll expect forensics to be there fairly fast, but through in traffic and you can have a corpse say in a McDonald's for lets say half an hour. Is it respectful to that person the family and others at the facility to keep the body were the most people can see it? Would it make more sense to move it to a room (say a non-food storage room) or at least tuck him/her away from the traffic? At least in a McDonald's in this example they have the option to close and ask people to leave or move the person. In a plane you're more "captive" until you land. n first class I'd assume most passengers would be adults. In economy your dealing with considerably more people of different ages. There is greater chances of having more people freak out from a group of say 300 people versus a group of say 30. I assume a handful of adults to handle it better then the small kids in families. Children are naturally inquisitive and may even just ask questions out of curiosity (or get freaked) I'd assume a rational adult can at least handle the situation without pointing and getting excited. Some of the whiniest people are those that pay a premium for an experience.
Originally Posted By SoThisIsLove What he meant to say was Dalmatians! D A L M A T I A N S Dalmatians!
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy avro you ruined my thread's only substantiated "dalmatians" post!! Now I have to wait for ANOTHER airline to park a corpse next to some businessman! UGH! I DEMAND COMPENSATION FROM LP FOR THIS MENTAL ANGUISH!! ($10,000 will be fine)
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle >>Also, (I think someone asked this already) if the dead person's family member was able to come up and sit in First Class...why couldn't they sit next to the body instead of a stranger?<< From a couple of other articles I read, the family member (daughter?) was actually seated next to the lady's body, and this businessman was across the aisle.
Originally Posted By debtee <Planes do divert all the time for medical emergencies.> Yes they do. A few years back I was very ill on a Qantas flight to London and they landed the plane unscheduled in Singapore to get me to hospital. It saved my life! That's how I know, usually the flight staff and ground staff are very accommodating and try to do there best when unusual situations occur. The airline was at fault in my situation as they had given me a meal with food that I'm allergic to after they had been informed of my allergy that is life threatening and I had double checked when the meal was served to me. I was in hospital in Singapore for 3 days and it's quite scary when you are alone and 21 years old. To compensate me they moved me up to business class for the flight from Singapore to London. There was no need for me to take any further action against the airline as someone did make a mistake but I felt they were very nice to me once they realised the mistake had happened and I'm still here in one piece! This leads me to believe this man had a legimate beef with the airline and wasn't treated very nicely by them and it really could have saved all this hassal had they listened to him in the first place and just given him a refund.
Originally Posted By Mr X Wow, Deb. That's a scary story! (allergies suck!) In your case, I'm not surprised the airlines treated you nicely, because they were negligent. They were probably also concerned that you might sue. As for this case though, no negligence. Just bad luck (for all concerned).
Originally Posted By Inspector 57 <<If BA is any indication, then hundreds of people die in flight every year. Is it a good idea to have planes do emergency landings every time that happens (like, once a day or so?)?>> People are generally flying to or from home. Fifty percent chance they're headed away; fifty percent chance they're returning. People are more likely to die on longer flights. (Not that longer flights are more dangerous. It's just that statistically it's probably 10 times more likely that someone will die on a 10-hour flight than a quick trip from Phoenix to LA.) Longer trips are more likely to traverse numerous countries. So... a policy of diverting to the nearest airport immediately upon the death of a passenger is very likely to seriously inconvenience the survivors of the deceased. For example, instead of returning to Prague, as scheduled, the plane stops in Madrid and the body is off-loaded for... well, whatever you'd have the body off-loaded for. At the very least, that's going to cause a temporal delay and subsequent inconvenience for the family. At the worst, it's going to cost them mountains of red tape and some expense to get the body released and shipped back home.
Originally Posted By Mr X Obviously, those are good points Inspector. When it comes right down to it, in the unfortunate event of someones death, it just makes the most sense for all concerned to simply finish the flight. Uncomfortable though that situation may be.
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle Yikes Deb -- and I get mad when they give me a normal meal instead of vegetarian! I'm sorry to hear about it, but I'm glad it all turned out okay. What a scary thing to go through.
Originally Posted By CrouchingTigger My question: Were all of the overhead storage compartments full?
Originally Posted By Ursula ^ can you fit a body in one of those without folding it up? Unless it was long. Look, I know space is rare on a plane. I do wish though, with as many natural deaths that happen on a plane, that they need to have a plan. What if first class was full on this flight? What would they have done then?
Originally Posted By Mr X >>>What if first class was full on this flight? What would they have done then?<<< I think that's why BA said they handle these things case by case. There is no particularly good "plan" to be had, the crew just does the best they can under the circumstances.
Originally Posted By gadzuux If it were me calling the shots, I would have placed her in one of the lavs. Sorry, but - it's well suited for the problem at hand - a small enclosure that can easily serve as a space for stowing a corpse for a few hours until the plane lands. The family members may not like it, but having them wail and keen and carry on over the body in the passenger cabin isn't in the best interests of anyone either. It's not meant as any disrespect the deceased or the loved ones, only as a practicality. Once she's dead, she's freight.
Originally Posted By threeundertwo >>Once she's dead, she's freight.>> Ouch! That seems pretty insensitive! I've been with people as they died, and I've worked in a morgue, so I've spent plenty of time with corpses. Frankly I view them with reverence. Was it Shakespeare who said "Angels lurk upon their brows?" I see something else here, that nobody has touched on yet, and that is the different views of death in different cultures. In our generation, fewer people in Western countries have witnessed a death (or for that matter a birth). We view hospitals and nursing homes as the appropriate place for people to die. I surmise that the family members of this woman were acting in a culturally-appropriate way for them. (Am I understanding correctly that the deceased was from India?) The resulting discomfort is perhaps not so much the airline's fault, as it is a culture clash. I imagine if I were the flight attendant, I would have a hard time telling the family members to tone it down, although I'm sure they did everything they could to comfort them. Also, it may have been more comforting for the family to view the deceased's face than to have it covered. It was not the place of the flight crew to interfere in this intensely personal moment more than they did. Would you feel differently if it had been a baby or child who had died? Would you not have wept with the grieving parents as they held that child in their arms? It's a sad story.
Originally Posted By jonvn The lav idea sounds probably the best to me, too. Unless you can't tie it down, and it starts bouncing and making noise. I know that sounds awful of me, but that would be the safety situation on board the plane.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice Hey... Just prop Bernie up and have a cocktail - make it a double.
