Monday, March 19, 2007

What is the policy of an airline if someone dies aboard the plane while in flight? Apparently on British Airlines an in-flight corpse gets an upgrade from economy class to first class.

What's so bad about that, right? It's the least they can do (health officials please debate this) for the elderly Indian woman who expired shortly after take-off on a flight from New Delhi to London.

Passengers in the first class cabin woke to a commotion that was not just air turbulence.

Businessman Paul Trinder, 54, told London's Daily Mail that he woke up in the darkened cabin to what he later learned was a body being moved around "like a sack of potatoes."

Trinder said that air turbulence was causing the body to "rock and roll" all the place even though the body was strapped in with a seat belt for the five hour flight.

A British Airways spokesperson, responding to Trinder's criticism at handling the event said: "...all actions are governed primarily by issues of safety, for example, the deceased must not be placed in the galley or blocking aisles or exits, and there should be clear space around the deceased." Isn't that the same procedure for living passengers? What kind of policy is that?

"On this occasion," the spokesperson said, "the flight was very busy, although there was space in the First Class [sic] cabin which allowed the family members travelling with the deceased some level of privacy in their grief.

"We apologise to passengers in the First [sic] cabin who were distressed by the situation - our cabin crew were working in difficult circumstances and chose the option that they believed would cause the least disruption.

My question is why did they not land at the nearest airport to remove the body from the plane? Passengers complained of possible health hazards, and who wouldn't with a dead body strapped in a seat, bouncing around for five hours in a stuffy cabin? Ugh.

Labels: Airline Mishaps, Airline Policies, Bizarre News, British Airways, In Flight Weird News, Strange Deaths, Unusual Deaths

posted by Googe | 6:27 PM | 0 comments links to this post