How often do people die on flights?

POB

POB

POB

Soldato
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I was on a BA flight the other week and someone unfortunately died during the flight, has this ever happened to anyone else?

Or does anyone have any stats on how often this happens?
 
Number_25 said:
Woah, thats unfortunate.

Can I ask if they landed at a closer airport just to take the body off?
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No, but we went to a remote stand at LAX and were bused from there.

I think the body stayed in business the whole flight.
 
Not that often, we operate a 1000 flights a day and it's extremely rare. We had plenty of medical emergencies though. We have 16-20 aircraft at my base and it's almost daily you will see an ambulance on one of the stands even if it's just for someone feeling ill and having to go on oxygen.

It has been known to put a body in the toilets before which ended badly because once the body stiffened up getting them out required some disassembly, normally they strap them to a crew seat if they don't have space.
 
....and that's why I never eat airline food.

But that must have been awkward if the other passengers knew he was dead. Poor person, was he/she quite old?
 
It happens fairly regularly. Not on a daily basis but more often than most would imagine. People get very sick on flights on a daily basis. It's inevitable some will die.
 
In an article from 2007, British Airways said they had on average 10 passengers die on flights each year:

Airline moves dead body to 1st class

LONDON --A first-class passenger on a flight from Delhi to London awoke find the corpse of a woman who had died in the economy cabin being placed in a seat next to him, British Airways said Monday. The economy section of the flight was full, and the cabin crew needed to move the woman and her grieving family out of that compartment to give them some privacy, the airline said.

The first-class passenger, Paul Trinder, told the Sunday Times newspaper that he was sleeping during a February flight from India and woke up when the crew placed the dead woman in an empty seat near him.

"I didn't have a clue what was going on. The stewards just plonked the body down without saying a thing. I remember looking at this frail, sparrow-like woman and thinking she was very ill," the newspaper quoted Trinder as saying. "When I asked what was going on, I was shocked to hear she was dead."

British Airways said in a statement that about 10 passengers die each year in flight and that while each situation is dealt with on an individual basis, safety is paramount.

[...]
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— http://replay.web.archive.org/20070...7/03/19/airline_moves_dead_body_to_1st_class/
 
Question.

Say you're in for a long haul flight 12 hours+
Would you rather have a recently deceased guy sitting next to you or some bratty kids making noise and playing up for the majority of the flight?

I think I'd take the dead person.
 
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