Wed, Dec 06, 2006
Body Rides In First Class For Remainder Of Trip
Travelers riding in the first class cabin on a recent British
Airways flight were distressed to find out they were sharing the
cabin with an elderly passenger who passed away halfway through the
transatlantic journey.
The London Daily Mail reports the American man suffered a heart
attack about three hours into the six hour flight from London to
Boston on November 28. The flight crew made an announcement
searching for a medical doctor, and they carried the stricken
passenger into the galley area between business and first class on
the Boeing 777.
The crew then tried for over 30 minutes to revive the man... but
he was declared dead. As the flight was nearly full, the question
then became, where could they put the man's body for the remainder
of the flight?
As it turned out, the first class cabin on Flight 213 was only
80 percent full. So the crew carried the man to one of the 14 first
class pod-bays -- which feature seats that can recline into a bed
-- and propped the body up in a semi-reclined position, covered
with a blanket.
"Four male stewards came I carrying the poor chap who was in his
60s or 70s and casually dressed," said one of the first class
passengers, identified only as a female computer executive in her
30s. "But he was a bit too big for them. Another passenger lent a
hand as they propped him up."
"They wrapped him in a blanket and strapped him in and
semi-reclined the seat. But his head was exposed and leaning to one
said, as if he were asleep," the woman added. "I could see the top
of his head throughout the flight. The chap's wife came in an sat
with him on the little buddy stool at the bottom of the bay in
front of the seat. She was very distressed. We could hear her
sobbing."
"It's not very enjoyable when this happens," she said. "But the
staff were very good."
A spokesman for British Airways said that out of 36 million
passengers flown annually by the airline, about a dozen people die
while aboard its planes each year.
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