How would you feel about this on a plane

[eyeeyeeyeeyeeye]

Couple made to sit next to a dead body of a lady who died onboard

apple.news/A8Nu4zbMtRYOtJwBUKIhyqw

There were free seat the other passengers could move to.

I read the BBc article which said they tried to move the body more but the lady was very heavy and they couldn’t lift her.

The supernumerary seats don't always get installed in some configurations (weight = cost)

From the bbc article, it sounds like they used blankets to cover the body.

It also sounds like everyone was slightly reactive eg trying to move the body, not being able to and so sitting the body in the nearest aide seat without thinking first that the passenger could move out of that row entirely rather than moving up. Not a perfect response but I am sure the airline staff were also quite shocked when their initial plan to move the body further forwards wasn’t possible.

I don't understand - he says there were spare seats. Why didn't they just move?

Its horrendous. Surely they could have moved people around maybe into the vacant seats and then put the body on its own somewhere.

My old roommate used to be cabin crew. This happens more times than people realise. She told me she had a dead body they had to seat next to people and they didn't even realise they were dead. Not much you can do if someone dies on a plane. What about the poor family of the deceased? How do they feel about the situation and all this "reporting" in such a dehumanising way of the poor person who died? I'd be furious if a couple were taking pictures of my dead family member just to complain and sell to newspapers for a story.

If the person sitting next to me died and the plane was full I would sadly accept there were no other options

But that doesn’t sound like the case here. It sounds like there were spare seats here and there - and clearly some space in business class - so why on earth didn’t they move people around so the lady’s body had a row to itself.

It sounds like a very difficult and upsetting situation all round but I'm at a loss as to why the crew didn't say "there are spare seats for you to move to here."

It's all a bit Fawlty Towers isn't it ?

"Even when they're dead our guests give us problems !"

There is some dark humour here. (I know that was banned a while back, but it's not yet been eradicated).

This sounds dreadful (obviously the whole dying on a plane is awful) but it depends if the flight was full or not

Generally not that much spare space on an airplane

Ex cabin crew member here, I used to fly on big planes where we could do without the smaller galleys in the middle of the plane, if we had a death on board (I didn’t but friends did) the person would be moved to the galley, curtains drawn and crew guarding them-people were so nosey, one of my friends had horrific stories about passengers trying to open the curtains to have a look.

On a full flight or smaller plane the person would have to be seatbelted into a seat. We would do everything in our power to give the person privacy and ensure other passengers were comfortable but only doctors can legally declare someone dead and therefore we could not cover their face unfortunately. Flight would also be diverted to get
onto the ground as soon as possible. Can’t imagine on a flight that wasn’t full passengers not being asked to move, maybe a breakdown in communication?

I don't understand why they had to move the body at all. She would have had a seat, the one in which she sadly died. Why did they move her from it only to place her next to somebody else?

Equally, I wouldn't find it that unsettling myself but we're all different.

And yes, he could have asked to move. Or just don't ask, just move.
Perhaps to the deceased's original seat, which by the sounds of it, was now going spare...

Yes. The couple should not have gone to the press with this. There were much better ways to address the issue with the airline. This publicity and the detail being reported must be putting that poor family through hell.

If it bothered him that much he should’ve moved to a different seat himself or stood if there were no free seats (although the articles I’ve read said there were seats available).

I think he’s just after a claim and some compensation.

the moved the deceased and then couldnt move them again?

This was mentioned on an old episode of QI.

My takeaway fact was that BA used to give the deceased sunglasses, a drink and a copy of the Daily Telegraph in first class to remove attention ...

He was not shocked enough to fail to notice there were free seats available, and since his wife was moved, you'd have maybe have thought the idea of being moved would be firmly planted. I suspect "good attention-getting story + compensation (cost of flight +)" was more enticing than moving with his wife.

That said, I was told that long haul flights had to have "rest bunks" for staff, so if nowhere else was available I would have thought snese would dictate placing the body there?

That's shocking. I was once on a flight back from holiday (in Jamaica) where an elderly gentleman sadly died, and I was asked to move seats so that they could lay out the body where I was seated (I had a middle row to myself). They moved me to another row though, I wasn't expected to sit next to him! In fact that was clearly the point of moving him, so that nobody was next to him. Bit hard to get into the holiday spirit after a flight next to a corpse!

Why didn't they ask to be moved of there were extra seats.

Also yeah it's quite offensive / in poor taste of this man to have gone to the press moaning about sitting next to a 'body.' They are somebody's loved one and it's disrespectful.

I feel like, of the 2 of them here, he's still had the better flight.

I think the fact the deceased was obese was a major factor.

Unfortunately, they got the passenger to scooch over, meaning he was then trapped as the dead woman was in the aisle seat. If they’d vacated the row first, it would have been much less traumatic.

@EmmaMaria if there are rest bunks for the crew, it is because it is not safe for the crew not to rest. If the crew cannot rest then the flight might be deemed unsafe and have to land.

The article says she died in the aisle, I assumed they may have been trying to resuscitate her when she passed.

The guy didn’t want to speak up to ask to move but is happy enough to go to the press and talk to them? Smacks of seeking compensation. I feel so sorry for the family of the lady who died having this burden added at a terrible time.

The guy didn’t want to speak up to ask to move but is happy enough to go to the press and talk to them?

I think the crew’s mismanagement is what has made an awful situation even worse. Once they’d put the dead person next to him, he was effectively stuck (although I’d have asked if I could climb over the seat in front in order to move).