 An Actually, it was two oxygen tanks. The airline confirmed the flight death and said medical professionals had tried to save the passenger, Carine Desir, who was returning home to Brooklyn from Haiti. Desir, who had heart disease, died of natural causes, medical examiner's office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said Sunday. Natural causes exacerbated by reckless disregard for human life, that is. Desir had complained of not feeling well and being very thirsty on the Friday flight from Port-au-Prince after she ate a meal, according to Antonio Oliver, a cousin who was traveling with her and her brother Joel Desir. A flight attendant gave her water, he said. I hope she didn't have the eggs. Those are guaranteed to kill you, even if they microwave them until they are blue. A few minutes later, Desir said she was having trouble breathing and asked for oxygen, but a flight attendant twice refused her request, Oliver said Sunday in a telephone interview. Why? I can't wait for the reasoning on this one to come out in public. After the flight attendant refused to administer oxygen to Desir, she became distressed, pleading, "Don't let me die," Oliver recalled. "Aw, quit your whining. I know way more about your situation than you do. Other passengers aboard Flight 896 became agitated over the situation, he said, and the flight attendant, apparently after phone consultation with the cockpit, tried to administer oxygen from a portable tank and mask, but the tank was empty. Hmm. Maybe Ever heard of the concept of an equipment check? Two doctors and two nurses were aboard and tried to administer oxygen from a second tank, which also was empty, Oliver said. Makes you wonder if all those overhead oxygen masks are just there for decoration, doesn't it? Desir was put on the floor, and a nurse tried CPR, to no avail, Oliver said. A "box," possibly a defibrillator, also was applied but didn't function effectively, he said. In retrospect, perhaps insisting the doctors stay out of the way and running her over with the cleanup cart a couple of times didn't help, either. "I cannot believe what is happening on the plane," he said, sobbing. "She cannot get up, and nothing on the plane works." Take heart, gravity still works. And so do lawyers. Oliver said he then asked for the plane to "land right away so I can get her to a hospital," and the pilot "Sir, remember that whiney passenger I told you about? She just croaked." "She did? Cool! Since she doesn't need to go to the hospital we might still be able to make it to JFK in time to avoid getting in trouble for being too late!" "Her last words were, ' I'll bet it won't be long before we hear AA echoing something like that, too. Desir, 44, was pronounced dead by one of the doctors, Joel Shulkin, and the flight continued to Kennedy International Airport without stopping in Miami, with the woman's body moved to the floor of the first-class section and covered with a blanket, Oliver said. "Ma'am, we've decided to go the extra mile and upgrade you to first class because of all the inconvenience." Isn't JFK over 1000 miles north of Miami? I'm no pilot, but wouldn't it make sense to land ASAP and sort it out then rather than carry on with the show? [Note: That's PR-speak for "We are waiting for when we feel enough of the shoes dropped before we develop an excuse that meets all of the myriad legal requirements to necessary to slither out from under as much of the responsibility for the results of our miserable performance as we can manage".] Posted by: gorb 2008-02-25 |
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