"Airline Moves Dead Body to 1st Class"

Monday, March 19, 2007

Airline Moves Dead Body to 1st Class 
By JENNIFER QUINN
The Associated Press
 
 
LONDON (AP) -- A first-class passenger on a flight from Delhi to London
awoke to 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.

"The deceased must not be placed in the galley or blocking aisles or exits,
and there should be clear space around the deceased," the statement said.
"The wishes of family or friends traveling with the deceased will always be
considered, and account taken of the reactions of other passengers."

Because there was space in the first class cabin, that "allowed the family
members traveling with the deceased some level of privacy in their grief,"
the airline said.

"We apologize to passengers in the first cabin who were distressed by the
situation - our cabin crew were working in difficult circumstances and chose
the option that they believed would cause the least disruption," the
statement said.

David Learmount, a former pilot and cabin crew member who now writes about
the aviation industry for Flight International magazine, said that each
airline has to deal with the relatively rare situation on an individual
basis. He said that diverting the flight would be an unusual move, and that
the captain would be consulted before the crew acted.

"Personally, I think they did the thing that was the best thing to do," he
said. "Really, you want as much as possible to isolate the person.

"It's an isolated incident. It's not as if it happens every day, but you do
have to take in people's sensibilities when it does happen."

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