It’s a situation that every flight attendant hopes they never have to face. A passenger suddenly becomes unresponsive… They leap into action and discover that the passenger isn’t breathing, and they can’t detect a pulse. Colleagues come to their aid as they start CPR in a last-ditch attempt to save the passenger’s life.
Tragically, and despite the best efforts of the crew, the passenger doesn’t regain consciousness and is presumed dead. Now what happens?
Thankfully, this type of situation remains rare, with studies indicating that despite billions of passengers traveling by air every year, a death on board occurs at a rate of around one passenger for every 4.8 million airline journeys.
When it does happen, though, flight attendants know exactly what to do.
Passengers can’t be declared dead mid-flight
The first thing to know is that a passenger can’t be legally declared dead mid-flight, even if there is an off-duty doctor on board. That determination can only be made by local authorities at whatever destination the plane ends up landing at.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) advises airlines to require flight attendants to carry out CPR on an unconscious passenger with the aid of an ‘Automated External Defibrillator’ for at least 30 minutes, even if the passenger may have passed for some time.
If the AED has not given the order to deliver a shock to the passenger’s chest for 30 minutes and there are no signs of life, then the passenger is presumed dead.
This whole process is likely to have occurred in the aisle of the cabin, with passengers all around, so dealing sensitively with what comes next is of paramount importance.
Some airlines carry body bags, and the passenger will be placed into the bag, and it is zipped up only to the neck, ensuring that the head is still exposed. If the airline doesn’t stock body bags, then spare passenger blankets should be used to swaddle the body.
In most cases, the passengers will then be moved back to the seat they were occupying for takeoff. They will be strapped in using the seatbelt, and their eyes will be gently closed.
If there are spare seats available, passengers sitting around the body will be moved to alternative seats. On a full flight, this won’t be possible.
If other passengers are very distressed, then, at the crew’s discretion, they will move the body to another part of the aircraft, but modern planes are optimized to carry so many passengers that this is rarely a possibility.
Is There Really a Body Cupboard on an Airplane?
Myth Buster: You’ve probably heard of special ‘Body Cupboards’ for dealing with a mid-flight death. In the past, Singapore Airlines did, indeed, have Body Cupboards on a select few aircraft that operated the world’s longest flights from Singapore to New York.
These aircraft no longer exist, and the Body Cupboard is not something you will now find on a Singapore Airlines plane, or, for that matter, any other commercial passenger plane.
Flight attendants are advised not to store a body in a lavatory, as this is incredibly disrespectful, and there is no way to secure the body inside the cubicle.
In some cases, we have seen flight attendants move the body of a passenger to a galley area, or even next to an emergency exit. Aviation authorities, however, discourage this, as the body cannot be secured in the event of turbulence, and the exit must remain clear just in case there is an evacuation.
Will the plane divert?
Now comes the matter as to whether the aircraft will divert. This very much depends on where the aircraft was at the time the medical emergency started, whether the pilots had already been planning an emergency medical diversion, and the cultural norms of the airline.
Don’t be shocked, however, if the airline continues flying to its destination for many hours with the body on board.
For example, if the medical emergency occurred over a vast ocean with limited diversion points, the passenger could have been presumed dead long before the aircraft could have been on the ground to hand over first responders.
In this situation, the pilots have to weigh up the pros and cons of continuing to divert the plane, such as stranding the body in a foreign country, and potentially leading to a situation in which the flight has to be canceled in that third country because the crew has run out of legal hours to work.
In other words, the pilots are likely to continue flying to their intended destination with the body strapped in a seat, with other people sitting around them for a number of hours.
Once on the ground, passengers will be required to remain seated as the local authorities board the aircraft and assess the patient. They’ll need to be sure there is no evidence of a communicable disease or even foul play before allowing everyone to deplane.
Once everyone is off, the coroner will finally be allowed to remove the body. As for the plane, the seat covers will be swapped out, and it will be back in the air in a couple of hours.
