Flying First Class With a Corpse

So you're an flight attendant, and one of your passengers dies while flying from Delhi to Heathrow. What do you do?

If you work for British airways, you escort the dead woman and her daughter to first class, strap in the corpse, and wait out the rest of the flight -- without telling anyone why the woman in front won't stop wailing in grief.

They propped up her body using pillows.

According to the man sitting next to the deceased, "I didn't have a clue what was going on. She kept slipping under the seatbelt and moving about with the motion of the plane."

After the woman was joined by her grieving daughter and son-in-law, the man adds: "It was terrifying. I put my earplugs in but couldn't get away from the fact that there was a woman wailing at the top of her voice just yards away."

It was only after asking for an explanation from BA staff that he was informed the woman was dead.

Apparently this happens about 10 times a year. While other airlines have "corpse cupboards" to use when there isn't an empty row of seats for the body, BA's response, is essentially: the plane was full, so deal with it.

A first class ticket from Delhi to Heathrow on British Airways costs about £3,000.

[via Boing Boing]

Filed under: Airlines