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I'm assuming she just died of old age
if she had an heart attack, or just colapsed then they would preform CPR untill the plane had landing, i read somewhere that while flying you are not ever more then about 40mins from an airport, so you have to assume that the passagers traveling with this lady where expecting it to happen,
I dont understand?
Couldnt she have just died peacefully in her sleep?
if she died peacefully in her sleep and the family wasnt expecting it then the crew would have to preform CRP untill landing, and the plane would land, it wouldnt carry on just because the person was old,
As I understand it the procedure for many airlines is either to clear an economy row and lay the body there, or if most of the plane is full move it to first class where it will be not in direct contact with other passengers.
By the sound of things BA didn't do anything wrong by moving the deceased and her relatives to first class. They should have refunded the passenger who complained.
However how much people pay for their ticket should have precisely fuck all to do with figuring out where to place a body. Frankly, I can't believe some people appear to be saying otherwise.
thats what i thought, so what airline do you work for? if you dont mind me asking?
It must be done somehow. Some airlines already have a morgue-style draw for anyone who dies on board a long-haul flight.
you can see the reaction to that,
"sorry love, just going to have to pop your mum into this draw over here" lol
I'll get me coat.
That said, this whole fuss could have been avoided if BA had done what any decent airline would have done and discreetly apologised to the customer and offered a refund or free ticket on another flight.
Upsetting a passenger then telling them to get over it isn't the way forward.
(That's two things we agree on in the space of a few days. You should be worried
Ha. Well there is maybe more that we agree on than disagree...:chin: Just not Israel and the USA.
I wouldn't sue, but at the very least I'd expect my money back. As MOK says, he paid for a service that he didn't recieve. It's no use calling him a wanker or whatever because he has money an chooses not to sit in economy class.
Would you feel the same way if it was a honeymooning couple, who had saved up for years for a flight in first class...? It would certainly put a damper on mine I could tell you.
How do they know she hasnt some nasty disease?
I certainly wouldnt want some potentially infectious dead body near me regardless of whether or not I was in First Class. They should have put her in a toilet.
A corpse sitting in economy would be literally 2 inches away from passengers either side of it, and 31 inches away from a few more in front and behind.
A corpse sitting in first class would not have anyone sitting in its immediate vicinity. First class seats in long haul nowadays have abundant personal space all around them. Notice how the first class passenger in question said the body was in 'his row'. That is going to be several metres away from him, not 3 inches.
What are you guys going to suggest next? That if a plane crash lands and starts to burn first class passengers should be let off first because they have paid several thousand Pounds for their ticket and getting burnt isn't part of the service?
:yes:
Or first class passengers should at least have their own emergency shoot, so they dont have to slide down with the commoners in economy.
:thumb:
thats what they should have done.
Now, first point, a dead body on the flight, first and foremost the family are going to be upset, it's a terrible thing, all due compassion to them. But, this guy isn't suing or blaming the family, merely the airline.
Second point, anyone who had grieving relatives next to them and a dead body nearby (I too have seen a corpse and it's not nice, you don't 'get over' it, it's an image that will stay with you til you die), then you're going to be upset. But apparently, that's not the airlines problem.
At the end of the day, you expect a service, whether in economy or first class. This means not being exposed to corpses, wherever. If the airline has nowhere to put it appropriately, fair enough, but they shouldn't expect passengers to just deal with it. It's their fault that they're upsetting their customers, and they should compensate them in the form of a refund, a free ticket, a free upgrade or an apology.
Why everyone is having a go at first class passengers I don't know. Would you be having a go at economy class passengers who were upset because there was a corpse in their row / next row that was left there?
I don't know about putting it in the toilet, that doesn't seem appropriate either. I think first class was the best place, as it upsets the least amount of passengers and gives the family somewhere quiet to grieve.
However, then saying to first class passengers 'oh, you didn't like the dead body we lumped in with you? tough shit' is so rude. You wouldn't expect it from economy or first class passengers.
I think part of this thread is about class rivalries, when at the end of the day, if YOU had to sit near a corpse, you'd be upset, and wouldn't remember it as your best flight. You might be one of those who just likes to take it on the chin, but I complain when I don't receive good service. They were extreme circumstances and the airline did the best they could - but that's not good enough when you're a paying customer (whether £300 or £3000) and have to have a corpse next to you.
Going on about the 'what about the family?? selfish prick!' argument is just ridiculous, because he's not complaining to the family.
That's what pisses me off anyway.
You'd be fine with a corpse which had died from unknown causes being near you? You dont see that as a possible health issue?
The toilet might not be the most respectful place, but it is the safest.
I'm not sure where i stand on where the corpse should have been, but i'm pretty sure that there would have been more of an uproar if granny had been put in the bog!
If that was the case I'm not sure putting the body in the toilet would do much good anyway.
If BA gets around 10 deaths on board per year on average I suspect the total number of people who die on planes must be well more than 100 per year. To the best of my knowledge every single case handled by any given airline will see the body being left in one of the cabins, be economy or first class (unless the plane is one of the few that is equiped with a morgue-sytle storage draw) so the risk of infection must be next to nil.
Health regulations concerning passenger airlines and flying are one of the strictest to be found anywhere and clearly the authorities don't think much of the issue either.
It's the idea of a dead body that is the issue. I'm pretty sure you're a lot more likely to catch something off someone who's alive rather than a dead person...
I agree. I think the situation was unavoidable but really BA could have dealt with it better rather than shoving a corpse next to a sleeping passanger. First class or otherwise. I've seen a dead body and I agree that it isn't something you just 'get over'. At least I had prior warning before I SAW the actual corpse whereas this man didn't.
Just rather. I hate this attiude of "I must get money out of everything".
Some people are fucking shallow.
As for disease - fuck it, you play that game every time you get ON A PLANE. If she died of something nasty, you'd have got it before she died from the reciculated air anyway. Anyone with an infectious, respiritory illness of hte severe kind, should not be allowed to fly. But they are. TB is often spread in planes.