[ARABNEWS] With an estimated 3.3 billion people traveling on about 27 million flights annually, there have been many sudden deaths aboard planes.Never thought about that, did you?
Airlines have special procedures in place to deal with these eventualities, such as special compartments on planes where they can store a body, according to a report in a local publication recently.
"Shirl, the passenger in 114B's death rattling. Is the meat locker empty?"
Most of the time the other passengers are not informed if a person dies, to prevent people from getting upset or panicking. Bodies are normally stored in a compartment in the first class section.
"Mind if we put this guy in that seat?"
"Go right ahead. And I'd like more champagne, please."
Singapore Airlines, which operated the then-new Airbus A340-500 planes in 2004, was the first airline to have a discreet locker built next to one of the plane’s exit doors, long enough to store an average-sized body, with special straps to prevent any movement during a bumpy landing, according to reports.
"Shirl, who put all that baggage in the corpse locker?"
Cabin crew were instructed to use the locker in the event of a death on a long-haul flight — particularly if the aircraft was busy, with no free seats on which to lay out the deceased, the report stated.
| On an ever-so-slightly serious note, a physician friend of mine was on a SwissAir flight from Chicago to Zurich when a passenger had the big squeeze somewhere around Newfoundland. While the pilot got the plane to Bangor my friend helped to resuscitate the poor fellow. He was impressed by just how well SwissAir was equipped with emergency gear. |