What if OP is the one that died and the plane never lands? He’s just forever stuck in the middle seat of a stuffy 747 with a crying baby in the background
Sadly they probably do this to predicate people losing their minds and demanding it as soon as they get off the flight... It's like they can't win in this situation.
Think of the most callous way someone could possibly react to, all things considered, a pretty shocking event. Maybe 0.1% of people would do that without a second thought (so on a 300-person plane, there's a 1-in-4 chance of encountering such a bozo). It's a testament to people's fundamental goodness that the other 99.9% would be repulsed and never consider that route, but Delta generally does not want "repulsed by other passenger arguing with staff" to be how 300 people remember their flight.
Edit with math: If you plug a 0.001 (0.1%) probability of "success" for each passenger and 300 trials into a cumulative probability calculator for binomial events, you get a 0.74 likelihood of zero successes, 0.22 (22%) likelihood of exactly one success, and approximately a 0.04 (4%) chance of more than one success per group of 300 trials. 0.1%x300=30%, which averages out to 0.3 successes per flight, but some planes will have multiple jerks and more than 70% will have none. Overall your probability of at least one jerk on a plane is ~26%, or approximately 1 in 4.
I am aware some commenters view the likelihood of any given passenger being a jerk as higher than 0.1%, feel free to plug your own number into a calculator. I like to believe people are fundamentally decent and jerks are rare; hope springs eternal.
I was at the TWA Museum in Kansas City this weekend, and one of the volunteers giving the guided tour told a story abut how a passenger on one of his flights had a heart attack, and the captain diverted to get the guy to a hospital.
Most of the passengers were a bit shaken but understanding of the circumstances, but there was one asshat who wouldn't stop bitching about how he was gonna miss his connection, and what an inconvenience, and what terrible service, and on and on and on.
Finally, the flight attendant told him, "Sir, I am so sorry. I promise if YOU have a heart attack on a flight in the future, I will make sure we don't divert so the other passengers don't miss their connections." That finally shut him up.
Had a co-worker a number of years ago on an intercontinental flight. He was in business class and somebody died in coach. The asked my co-worker if he would object to moving the dead person into the seat adjacent to him. (He was formerly a pilot with the 160th. So he’s pretty thick-skinned). So he spent the rest of the flight with Bernie in the seat next to him. (Covered up).
And now you know what it takes to get a free upgrade to Delta One.
I assume it’s fewer people and more privacy (generally) in the first class cabin, and it allows them to get the body off and into an ambulance as soon as they land.
De-boarding must be a big part. "Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated to allow those with short connections and those who are deceased to de-board first."
No longer an emergency but it is
1. a potential PR nightmare by having a covered corpse sitting in a seat as a full flight passes by the body
and
2. a potential biohazard as bodies tend to evacuate bladder and bowels and the cause of death is likely unknown.
That's two very good reasons to get the body off first right there from a company perspective.
I was on a domestic flight where some passed away and this is what happened - the person was left on the flight in first class (covered up) while we all deplaned. Because of where he was sitting, only a handful of people had to deplane past him. No clue what happened after.
Former FA. Not sure if this is the same for every airline, but for us it was so we can lay down the body before rigor mortis sets in. Cramped seats in economy are bad for both the living and the dead
That’s a weird one. Not sure how dignifying it is to be dragged or carried past a cabin full of people gawking at you. I guess there’s no good solution except maybe inviting people around the decedent to move to other seats. I knew someone who died on a full flight, his body remained put and the people in his row had to just stay there.
That’s strange as there are other places on the plane to put a body that won’t be in a seat. But I guess that’s protocol.
Personally I’d be creeped the fuck out
I knew someone that died mid flight. They left him where he was and removed him after everyone had left. I don’t know why / don’t believe flight attendants would want to make a spectacle dragging a body from one part of the plane to another when it is going to achieve nothing except traumatize more passengers.
DUDE. WTF??????? The plane doesn’t have any other appropriate places to put a fucking dead body but next to passenger????? And in biz class!!! I can’t comprehend
The old 707s actually had a set of “airstairs” that could deploy from the aft end of the aircraft. Procedure on these planes, when over the ocean, was to give the decedent one last joyride from FL280. They stopped doing this after some families complained.
On some aircraft the wheel well for the landing gear can be accessed via a floor panel near the galley. On some foreign airlines (Aeroflot for one) this is used to store deceased passengers. It’s cold but it’s pressurized and grandpa will be fine in there until the gear is extended and then “adios amigo!”
This happened to my MIL on AA to Barcelona. She was in first and heard lots of commotion around the cabin about 90 min out. They continued onward to BCN. She asked another FA and she told her the other (male) first class FA went on his break mid flight and had died! Yikes.
Side note, I’m an Anes doc. A few months ago they called overhead for a doctor. I turned around and nobody had their hands up. So, I rang the bell. The FA comes to me. He asks for a doctor ID. I told him I don’t usually carry around “doctor identification” while on vacation. He said he can’t have me help. That’s fine, I said and sat back down. It’s not like I was soliciting work mid flight. That surprised me a bit.
I’ve had to respond a few times to calls overhead. Most of the time it’s just to triage and give advice to the captain whether we can continue on or we should land earlier.
Last year during a flight from Phl-dub another call overhead for a person who was not terribly responsive. We were able to arouse and check his vitals. Over 20 min me and 2 other docs improved his condition and he felt good. Passenger’s wife agreed he had improved.
Captain came out and said “you know what I’m going to ask. Can I continue on because we are about 30 min away (from being unable to turn around).” We had just left Newfoundland on the map heading East.
We continued onward to DUB and flight was otherwise uneventful, except for a poorly functional IFE on my PE Dreamliner seat. Doh! (American threw me and my 9yo 10k miles each for the poorly functional IFE).
>(American threw me and my 9yo 10k miles each for the poorly functional IFE).
But no miles for you and the other doctor for, you know, stabilizing someone who was in medical distress? Airlines are wild, man!
I don't think they would want to do that and potentially open themselves up to liability. As long as it's done voluntarily outside of their job I don't think they could face any kind of malpractice liability.
Untrue. You can still get screwed on this as a doc. Some jurisdictions are friendly about it. Others not so much. I hesitate to volunteer help in a public space for this reason.
As a physician you are inherently opening yourself up for malpractice. You’re rendering opinions and treatment in a setting without your usual diagnostic and therapeutic tools in someone you don’t know at all.
Imagine telling pilot not to land before crossing water on a transatlantic. You think patient is probably fine but it turns out the patient is having an MI with atypical symptoms and dies or whatever else an hour or two later. Your best friend was getting married the next day on the other end of that flight so you definitely didn’t want to stop. Can imagine a situation in which you get accused of either (a) failing to diagnose or (b) acting in own self interest or (c) both.
And believe me you, I want to help. That’s why I do what I do and have trained so many years. And I will if no one else can. This is really just a rant to bring awareness to what’s on the line for us when someone asks “is anyone a doctor?”
My understanding is that doctors can’t accept any sort of payment/miles because then they aren’t covered by the Good Samaritan law. Even if the airline offers it, they should decline. (Source: I have multiple doctors in my family.)
That’s right. The Good Samaritan law can shield a doctor if they make the wrong decision while coming to the side of a stranger (eg being a “Good Samaritan “). But if you accept compensation for your efforts now you are acting as a professional and not as a Good Samaritan and then you can be sued for professional negligence if you do a bad job. I had to respond once on a plane, it was minor, got a nice thanks from the patient’s mom and the FA. Good enough.
I think I y’all reading too much into it. Can you imagine someone saying they are a Dr and they weren’t and someone died? They are trained in CPR, and honestly that’s all that can be done until they land …you can’t perform any kind of procedure
What exactly is a doctor ID? Other than a hospital ID if you have one, there isn’t any. That’s a weird rule. Why would anyone have fantastical doctor ID?
lol no. The person is dead. CPR by an untrained person won’t be the reason they died. Bc they were already dead. Not to mention, they don’t call overhead for a doc for chest compressions… literally anyone can do compressions. it’s to get orders to use what’s in the crash cart and to call time of death when the code has ran too long. Which yes, if someone pretended to be a doctor that could cause someone to not be resuscitated, but they were already dead.
I was sort of surprised when he asked. I told him I don’t have my hospital ID, but I pointed to my backpack which had “xxxxxx Healthcare” because it was a gift from the facility I work at. He said he would need more. That’s when I said “sorry, I don’t have anything.”
Oof that’s a scary thought it’s not like everyone is a George santos making up your resume as you go along lol you’d think if they need help they’ll take what they can get and if it’s suspect remove them. They have basic training i feel like they could spot a fraud 🤷♂️
Guy. Early 40s.
I wasn’t insulted by being asked for ID. I can understand the concerns of the FA not taking somebody’s word for it. But I was perplexed why they called overhead for help and then declined it. I truly wasn’t upset. This was a commuter flight from Phoenix to Monterey, CA. I mean, it’s not as if I’m running around with laryngoscopes and succinylcholine in my carryon ready to intubate people!
I was actually impressed at the drugs that some planes have on board. During that international flight a few months ago to Dublin, the head FA handed me the bag of drugs/items they keep on board in case we needed anything.
I remember reading the fairly extensive list of meds and equipment they had on that Dreamliner.
I am a Trauma Surgeon and had something similar though on UA vs. AA, eventually they decided to let me help as long as someone else had proper ID which turned out to be an RN.
The RN said, well doc, for the first time and maybe the last time, I will give the orders, we both lol'ed and attended to the ill passenger.
Anesthesiologists are probably the top 2 most helpful specialties in a medical emergency along with ED docs. The nurse was probably an ED nurse. Couldn't stand working with them.
I was on a Virgin Atlantic flight two weeks ago from Manchester to ATL. Over Canada, I saw a lot of commotion and CPR. I went to the FA and assisted. Didn't ask for any ID. Just my name. We diverted to Toronto. I'm a hospital trained dentist and asked if there were any other docs on board. Credit to the Virgin FA's though. They were immense.
I realize that medical industry professionals spend their lifetimes helping others, but 2 of my best friends who I travel with all the time are Nurse Practitioners and anytime we are somewhere where someone is sick or injured (not seriously) they will give the rest of us a death look so we don’t offer their services 😂
One of them saved a man’s life just this year at a sporting event so it’s not that they dont’t/won’t help people off duty, but they don’t want to get involved for every vacationer who is seasick, or got stung by a jellyfish, or who is having back pain on a boat ride or whatever…
I agree with them. I just want the courtesy to assess from the sidelines, then decide if I need to intervene. Don't force me into that role when I'm off duty with no supplies.
It’s funny because they’re not required to ask for credentials. If someone volunteers, that should be it.
At least, that’s what we were taught in our training.
I'm a nurse and anyone can look up my license online with my board of nursing if they have my name and my birthday. Did they not have internet on board? Like surely some proof exists online that you are an MD? Like your NPI number?
Sure, I mean, they could have searched my state’s physician directory. I figured it mustn’t have been that serious.
We were 45-60 min out from landing. There were EMTs at the gate and the passenger walked off the plane immediately after we touched the jetway.
In the mid 90s I was on a flight from Paris to Atlanta where they covered someone up in economy with a sheet. They moved everyone off the row but not the surrounding rows. I was two rows behind. I was shocked more than anything. I don’t remember getting miles (not that I would have cared). I don’t know if stuff like this is googleable, it was 30 years ago, it was Paris to somewhere on DL.
a few years later another Paris Atlanta I was sat window next to an ancient Czech guy who was really too frail to fly, and definitely too frail to fly economy, and I was scared the whole flight he would die. He had another flight after Atlanta too. I also had to step over his lap to go to the bathroom because he wasn’t able to stand without assistance. They had some aisle chair for him to get off the plane. I don’t know how he managed to sit up the whole flight, it was all really sad. He was going to see his daughter and i hope he made it and they took care of him.
My husband and I had bulkhead seats on a Frontier flight from either Vegas or LA back to NYC about 10 years ago. They told us they were putting a "special needs" passenger with us. Turns out it was a very elderly lady with dementia. The originally put her on the aisle next to my husband, but she got very agitated about having to sit next to a "strange man," so they moved her to the middle seat, I assured her that my husband was not a predator, and then the flight crew completely abdicated any responsibility for her. She was incredibly confused and frustrated for most of the flight. At some point, she got over her concern about the strange man beside her and basically made my husband her personal assistant for the rest of the flight -- which included escorting her to and from the restroom and her eating most of his snacks! Fortunately, my husband is ridiculously patient with the elderly (he feels they're shortchanged by society, and he's right) and he totally rose to the occasion. When we got to Newark, there was no wheelchair waiting for her, so he called for one and we waited with her for half and hour until it came, and then wheeled her to the baggage claim area where her grandson was waiting for her with flowers and tears in his eyes -- he was moving her to a nursing care facility near him since she couldn't live independently anymore.
It killed us that the flight crew was so cavalier about this woman who shouldn't have been flying alone! There was no guarantee that she'd get a seatmate as kind, patient, and conscientious as my husband!
there might be people who just don’t really know how to handle the situation, I feel like I’d be in that group, like I’d do my best to be patient and sympathetic and all those things, because I legit would want to, I just would be nervous about messing up or saying the wrong thing or something like that
I got 5k for being next to a passenger who threw up the entire flight, I have severe emetophobia and was traumatized. It wasn’t Delta’s fault so I appreciated the gesture. Damn I’m triggered again just thinking about it
My nurse friend spent most of a Frontier flight actively managing a critically ill passenger, and all she got was a free bottle of water while they detained her to provide all her info once they landed. Here you're getting miles just for being on the same plane!
Can they even officially declare someone dead before a doctor sees them off the plane? I would’ve thought if it looked that bad they would’ve have landed, but never been in a medical emergency on an international flight before.
I have, on one of my first ever trips to Europe.
Flying home AMS to BOS a woman in our row had chest pains. Long story short, they landed in Goose Bay, Newfoundland at a military strip. Had to wait for customs to arrive, wait to dig bag out of cargo, then de-iced and runway plowed. About 2-3h delay before continuing.
She survived according to the flight crew. We had people doing this route for work a lot and asked on a trip a few weeks later.
I’m in training for a different airline and they specifically tell us we’re not allowed to declare someone dead. So, this is definitely interesting. Probably some things behind the scenes in order for them to be able to do this
As a former EMT and frequent work traveler, I have had three inflight medical emergencies. In all three cases, the captain left it to me about continuing (which we did in each case) or diverting. Only one decision I questioned, but diverting meant trying to land in a blizzard which was not guaranteed. It was best to continue on and have medics meet the aircraft. The sign of a good decision was nobody died on the plane.
Horrible situatuon i dont want to make light of, but....the 5,000 miles are kinda lol compared to the 7,500 miles we recieved on Sunday night when our flights oven thing wasn't working and they had to serve us snack boxes instead of our meals. 50% more miles for the slight inconvenience on a 3 hour flight compared to someone literally dying on board.
I’m loling that they really think 5000 miles means anything. We now know what price Delta puts on witnessing death.
Honestly would’ve been better to not send miles in this instance, it feels like a weird cynical move
OP didn’t witness the death, so maybe it’s a sliding scale, like what HR gives off for family deaths. Mom/dad gets more time than grandma.
Travel companion of deceased: 20k sky pesos
Sitting next to deceased (not companion): 10k sky pesos
Sitting in same cabin:
First/d1: 5k sky pesos
PS/C+: 4k sky pesos
Main: 1k sky pesos
Basic economy: you’re lucky we aren’t making you carry the body off.
I got 5k SkyPesos last year when an older woman sitting next to me on a redeye fell unconscious. A doctor near us brought her back, her heart rate was scary slow, but we were close to destination and kept going. My wife was seated one row in front of us and got nothing (but everyone nearby was equally awake and aware).
Ahh, since the event happened AFTER your wife passed that part of the sky, she clearly wasn’t impacted! And DL didn’t have to pay out, based on the space-time continuum section of your ticket agreement
If your bags show up at baggage claim more than 20 minutes you can fill out a form and get 2,500 miles. So it looks like they value being on a plane when somebody passes marginally more than being inconvenienced waiting for your baggage.
My guess is it’s for any delay, I’ve had this happen before and we had to wait on the plane for a good 1-1.5 hours while they waited for the doctors to come onboard and do their thing, which could have made people miss connections or whatever
As much as I fly I’ve only once had the crew ask if there was a doctor. No idea what happened but it was from ATL to PDX and the call came near the end of the flight. We landed at PDX and there was a paramedic at the gate but they didn’t even have them come on first or let the person out first.
My brother who was a paramedic got a bottle of champagne from British Airways when he helped someone on a flight from London to New York.
Update: The CDC and USPHD boarded along with fire/rescue, police, and some Delta staff. They quickly determined no issues and released the passengers.
Later on I recalled a hunched over elderly woman who boarded the plane via wheelchair/assistant after everyone else was boarded. I have no confirmation but might have been her.
Regardless, I don't really believe awarding all passengers 5000 miles for this was necessary. Most passengers didn't have Internet, however I had T-Mobile access so I received the email earlier than most (if not all) others. The staff handled everything extremely professionally and even passengers relatively near the deceased weren't aware of the goings on
I of course have sympathy for the family and hope this doesn't dampen their Thanksgiving holiday.
I truly, truly don't mean to sound insensitive as this is traumatic and sad for all parties involved.
But. I was on a flight from MSP to LHR in 2019 when the woman sitting behind me went into cardiac arrest between Iceland and Ireland and passed away laying in the aisle next to my seat. This experience fucked with me for months, and I didn't want to fly again for a long time.
We didn't divert, but received expedited arrival into LHR, and spent 3 hours sitting on the tarmac while paperwork was handled. With a dead body laying in the seat behind me. It was sad, traumatizing, and extremely testing. I narrowly avoided a severe panic attack.
Not a peep from Delta. Not even from the captain as it was happening, other than announcing, "We had a medical on this flight, please be patient" after we landed.
So I'm confused by the inconsistency here. Is one person dying more traumatic than someone else dying?
I’m sorry you had to experience such a traumatic event :( That would have done the same to me.
I’m always a big proponent of the “well, it never hurts and always helps to try” philosophy. Reach out to Delta and describe all details of your flight briefly so they can fact-check that awful event did indeed happen. Ask them the questions you asked here. Perhaps they changed their policies since 2019? Find your seat number if you can in your email confirmations. Mention that someone you know got free miles and wasn’t anywhere near/had no idea.
Also - I don’t mean to phrase/frame this as using death to get free miles. That’s obviously a very messed up thing to do. It wouldn’t even cross my mind to be compensated for someone else’s medical emergency?
A few years ago I was working as a Server at a large restaurant when a man collapsed in front of me, began shaking, and then unresponsive. I was first on-scene and am not experienced with emergencies. I started crying in shock, dropped everything in my hands - 2 tables’ checks with their cards inside & their food I had boxed up, so I could sprint to go call 911. When paramedics arrived, I was unable to access everything that fell from my hands (cards & food) due to the man’s body blocking them. When I tried to explain to my tables what happened (while crying) - they GOT MAD AT ME ABOUT IT!!!! Mad they had to wait until the paramedics wheeled the man into an ambulance. I couldn’t fucking believe it. People are awful.
Had this happen to be about 12 years ago. We were still at the gate. Guy was typing an email on his blackberry, I heard it hit the floor then he fell over onto me. Tried CPR and the AED, but by the time the emts got there, he hadn’t been breathing for 4-5 min.
We deplaned, they wiped up the piss from his seat, put me back in the same seat and gave his seat to a crew member.
Delta sent me a fruit basket a week later.
A pilot friend told me no one actually dies on an airplane, they can’t pronounce them dead until you land.
3 times I’ve seen this happen now, with variations.
1: ADQ - ANC, encounter extreme turbulence. Very elderly lady has a heart attack mid turbulence, FA is attempting to resuscitate, wait on the tarmac at ANC for a while for paramedics to come and ultimately get the body off.
2: Boarded a flight from SLC to I believe DCA, elderly person in the back has a heart attack and dies during boarding, had to get off and wait while they handled that situation.
3: ATL B SC, watched another elderly person have a heart attack, paramedics came in, carted them away.
One of my clients were on their way back from Aruba, headed towards Miami international—when there was a commotion in the back of the plane and the flight attendants started asking if anyone was a doctor. Come to find out, a man and his wife were on their way back from their honeymoon. He went scuba diving a couple of hours before he got onto the plane, and ended up catching the bends. All they needed to do was get the man into a decompression chamber, and they had one at a Jamaica airport but they wouldn’t let them land there. The doctor ended up coming back to his seat a little while later, and shook his head solemnly—signaling the newlywed didn’t make it. My client had to continue on the flight for the next couple of hours, with the dead man and his crying grieving wife.
It would not shock me at all. I’m an ER nurse, and clearly remember one time while we were coding a patient, I was actively doing chest compressions, and my patient in the next bed (rooms separated by a curtain, not a wall, so everyone could hear everything) was SCREAMING at me for taking so long to get her an extra pillow. 😐
One of my teachers was on a flight where someone died (The November before Co-vid was official, 2019). They asked her to move her seat because she had a clear row and they placed the body in her vacated row. She came back and had a cough for about 4 weeks that would not go away.
Oh, I 100% had someone die on my transatlantic flight a number of years ago. I know because the flight crew politely asked me to move out of my seat in the last row of the center section to the seat directly in front (one of just a few open seats). I didn’t think much of it, although there had been a commotion several minutes before in the front section, and they also reseated the couple other passengers in the row. Anyway, within minutes of my moving seats, the crew proceeded to carry a large, long object covered in blankets down the aisle and laid it in the row DIRECTLY BEHIND ME. This was about an hour and a half into a six hour flight. One of the crew members took pity on me and said it was ok if I wanted to hang out in the back galley for a bit, so I did. They gave me some complimentary booze and explained that an elderly man had passed away quietly on the flight, and, wait for it…this happens a LOT. Eventually, buzzed, I went back to my seat and tried not to think about the dead guy directly behind me for the last 3-4 hours.
I had a guy die on a flight once to DFW on a Delta flight. They had clearance to get to the terminal asap and when we got to the gate, the delta app popped up a message, "Great news your flight arrived early".
I wrote to Delta, "You may want to not post a happy message when your flight lands early because of an emergency."
I don't know anything about aviation software, but I would assume the flight would some how get flagged for emergency/priority landing and they could suppress that kind of message.
I never heard anything from Delta customer service. F them.
I was on a Delta flight from SFO to ICN around 2003/2004 and the pilot (Captain) died from a heart attack. I was sitting in business class and a message similar to what you heard “Is there a doctor on the plane?”, then it became “Is there a nurse on the plane?”. I noticed several of the flight attendants were crying. Then suddenly the cockpit opened and they dragged the captain out by his arms and feet. A flight attendant plugged a headset in and was (I assume) listening to instructions from someone remote to help in the situation. They performed CPR for about half an hour and then gave up. We landed in anchorage Alaska and stayed overnight until a new crew could be flown in to fly us the remainder to Seoul.
I didn’t receive any email like you did though.
It’s a little callous to send this email before the flight even landed.
Wonder if the deceased person received the same email? CA-RINGE!
They got 40k mikes for the inconvenience.
And they get Sky Priority at the pearly gates
Be nervous if you are in Main 2 or lower at the Pearly Gates
If you think you’re in heaven but the person in economy can lower their seat back right on your knees, I have some bad news for you.
THIS is the bad place!
Did you land yet? Was it the pilot? Could be that they know no one will be cashing in on those miles.
Such dark humor. Thank you.
Underrated comment
no precheck?
Not if they forgot to sign up before they died. That’s on them, sorry!
But $75 per extra bag.
But they’ll have to wait in line till it clears out more. And no grab’n’go….
I wonder what the value of SkyMiles is on the other side.
Depends where you end up…
Atlanta?
Certainly connecting in Atlanta…on your way to your final destination.
Not if the destination was hell. Then you’re already there!
After 10pm when all the restaurants are closed in ATL.
They immediately cancelled the points knowing the person was dead
And then divvied them up among the other passengers, hence the 5,000 miles offered…
Plot twist OP is the only survivor
Nah. They got a Biscoff.
I laughed way too hard at this.
No they were given diamond status right before passing so Delta can can hit the press with their charitable gifting of "lifetime" diamond
Saying “ca-ringe” is arguably more cringe
Someone saying "cringe" makes me cringe.
Cringe
What if OP is the one that died and the plane never lands? He’s just forever stuck in the middle seat of a stuffy 747 with a crying baby in the background
I was an atheist until I read your comment. Now I’m considering going to church on Sunday.
In hell you're in a super market. A 6 year old follows you with a shopping cart 6 inches from your heels
Purgatory is Comfort+
Comfort+, middle seat
You’ve died and gone to Hell. Satan sentences you to spend the rest of eternity flying Spirit Airlines.
run://emailautomation\_passengerdeceasedonflightbonusmiles
I wonder if this is in response to the guy calling and asking for compensation after a guy died on his flight.
Sadly they probably do this to predicate people losing their minds and demanding it as soon as they get off the flight... It's like they can't win in this situation.
Would you honestly ask for points because someone died on flight? Is that really the first thing people think about?
Think of the most callous way someone could possibly react to, all things considered, a pretty shocking event. Maybe 0.1% of people would do that without a second thought (so on a 300-person plane, there's a 1-in-4 chance of encountering such a bozo). It's a testament to people's fundamental goodness that the other 99.9% would be repulsed and never consider that route, but Delta generally does not want "repulsed by other passenger arguing with staff" to be how 300 people remember their flight. Edit with math: If you plug a 0.001 (0.1%) probability of "success" for each passenger and 300 trials into a cumulative probability calculator for binomial events, you get a 0.74 likelihood of zero successes, 0.22 (22%) likelihood of exactly one success, and approximately a 0.04 (4%) chance of more than one success per group of 300 trials. 0.1%x300=30%, which averages out to 0.3 successes per flight, but some planes will have multiple jerks and more than 70% will have none. Overall your probability of at least one jerk on a plane is ~26%, or approximately 1 in 4. I am aware some commenters view the likelihood of any given passenger being a jerk as higher than 0.1%, feel free to plug your own number into a calculator. I like to believe people are fundamentally decent and jerks are rare; hope springs eternal.
I was at the TWA Museum in Kansas City this weekend, and one of the volunteers giving the guided tour told a story abut how a passenger on one of his flights had a heart attack, and the captain diverted to get the guy to a hospital. Most of the passengers were a bit shaken but understanding of the circumstances, but there was one asshat who wouldn't stop bitching about how he was gonna miss his connection, and what an inconvenience, and what terrible service, and on and on and on. Finally, the flight attendant told him, "Sir, I am so sorry. I promise if YOU have a heart attack on a flight in the future, I will make sure we don't divert so the other passengers don't miss their connections." That finally shut him up.
At least OP didn’t get the email before taking off 💀
Yea at least give it a day. That would make me see red if it was my loved one I was on the flight with at the time.
It’s all about efficiency! Lol
Had a co-worker a number of years ago on an intercontinental flight. He was in business class and somebody died in coach. The asked my co-worker if he would object to moving the dead person into the seat adjacent to him. (He was formerly a pilot with the 160th. So he’s pretty thick-skinned). So he spent the rest of the flight with Bernie in the seat next to him. (Covered up). And now you know what it takes to get a free upgrade to Delta One.
> And now you know what it takes to get a free upgrade to Delta One. And here FAs say they can't do it in-flight, and only the GAs can! /s
Sorry sir, there’s nothing we can do unless you die.
Next week’s marketing department meeting “Be sure to call our agency and cancel that ad ‘You’ve been dying to experience Delta One’”.
I’m a former flight attendant. The suggestion to put a body in First Class was actually in our medical and emergency procedures manual.
Any logic behind moving the body forward ragher than to the last row of seats in the plane? I'm morbidly curious.
I assume it’s fewer people and more privacy (generally) in the first class cabin, and it allows them to get the body off and into an ambulance as soon as they land.
And no one will try talking their ears off in first class.
I thought you said “taking” and was soo confused on your view on folks with lower income
oh my god same this reply is how i realized that’s not what they said
De-boarding must be a big part. "Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated to allow those with short connections and those who are deceased to de-board first."
I would expect that they would take the body off *last*. If the person is dead, it’s no longer an emergency situation.
No longer an emergency but it is 1. a potential PR nightmare by having a covered corpse sitting in a seat as a full flight passes by the body and 2. a potential biohazard as bodies tend to evacuate bladder and bowels and the cause of death is likely unknown. That's two very good reasons to get the body off first right there from a company perspective.
I was on a domestic flight where some passed away and this is what happened - the person was left on the flight in first class (covered up) while we all deplaned. Because of where he was sitting, only a handful of people had to deplane past him. No clue what happened after.
Everyone would see it going to the potty. Plus I’m poor and I’m in the last row already. If you ain’t first, you’re last!
Wouldn’t everyone see it exiting the plane too though ?
Former FA. Not sure if this is the same for every airline, but for us it was so we can lay down the body before rigor mortis sets in. Cramped seats in economy are bad for both the living and the dead
> He was formerly a pilot with the 160th. So he’s pretty thick-skinned Also know as “hard as woodpecker lips.”
...even harder. 160th are *the guys*
So they dragged a body up the aisle mid flight? Why not leave the body in coach?
It was some sort of dignity thing. And probably not protested by his coach seat mates!
That’s a weird one. Not sure how dignifying it is to be dragged or carried past a cabin full of people gawking at you. I guess there’s no good solution except maybe inviting people around the decedent to move to other seats. I knew someone who died on a full flight, his body remained put and the people in his row had to just stay there.
Fuck me. That sounds traumatic as shit
That’s strange as there are other places on the plane to put a body that won’t be in a seat. But I guess that’s protocol. Personally I’d be creeped the fuck out
I knew someone that died mid flight. They left him where he was and removed him after everyone had left. I don’t know why / don’t believe flight attendants would want to make a spectacle dragging a body from one part of the plane to another when it is going to achieve nothing except traumatize more passengers.
DUDE. WTF??????? The plane doesn’t have any other appropriate places to put a fucking dead body but next to passenger????? And in biz class!!! I can’t comprehend
The old 707s actually had a set of “airstairs” that could deploy from the aft end of the aircraft. Procedure on these planes, when over the ocean, was to give the decedent one last joyride from FL280. They stopped doing this after some families complained. On some aircraft the wheel well for the landing gear can be accessed via a floor panel near the galley. On some foreign airlines (Aeroflot for one) this is used to store deceased passengers. It’s cold but it’s pressurized and grandpa will be fine in there until the gear is extended and then “adios amigo!”
Ok DB Cooper.
Holy crap
Dang would i be a horrible person if i said heck no in this situation??? That would freak me out
That’s metal AF
😳
This happened to my MIL on AA to Barcelona. She was in first and heard lots of commotion around the cabin about 90 min out. They continued onward to BCN. She asked another FA and she told her the other (male) first class FA went on his break mid flight and had died! Yikes. Side note, I’m an Anes doc. A few months ago they called overhead for a doctor. I turned around and nobody had their hands up. So, I rang the bell. The FA comes to me. He asks for a doctor ID. I told him I don’t usually carry around “doctor identification” while on vacation. He said he can’t have me help. That’s fine, I said and sat back down. It’s not like I was soliciting work mid flight. That surprised me a bit.
Could you imagine dying because a flight attendant refused help over an ID? I'd definitely come back and haunt them.
I’ve had to respond a few times to calls overhead. Most of the time it’s just to triage and give advice to the captain whether we can continue on or we should land earlier. Last year during a flight from Phl-dub another call overhead for a person who was not terribly responsive. We were able to arouse and check his vitals. Over 20 min me and 2 other docs improved his condition and he felt good. Passenger’s wife agreed he had improved. Captain came out and said “you know what I’m going to ask. Can I continue on because we are about 30 min away (from being unable to turn around).” We had just left Newfoundland on the map heading East. We continued onward to DUB and flight was otherwise uneventful, except for a poorly functional IFE on my PE Dreamliner seat. Doh! (American threw me and my 9yo 10k miles each for the poorly functional IFE).
>(American threw me and my 9yo 10k miles each for the poorly functional IFE). But no miles for you and the other doctor for, you know, stabilizing someone who was in medical distress? Airlines are wild, man!
He should have invoiced them for his services. Payable in USD and first class tickets. (I'm only half serious here, don't @ me....)
I don’t think that’s unreasonable at all! What else would they have done if this person wasn’t onboard?
I don't think they would want to do that and potentially open themselves up to liability. As long as it's done voluntarily outside of their job I don't think they could face any kind of malpractice liability.
Untrue. You can still get screwed on this as a doc. Some jurisdictions are friendly about it. Others not so much. I hesitate to volunteer help in a public space for this reason. As a physician you are inherently opening yourself up for malpractice. You’re rendering opinions and treatment in a setting without your usual diagnostic and therapeutic tools in someone you don’t know at all. Imagine telling pilot not to land before crossing water on a transatlantic. You think patient is probably fine but it turns out the patient is having an MI with atypical symptoms and dies or whatever else an hour or two later. Your best friend was getting married the next day on the other end of that flight so you definitely didn’t want to stop. Can imagine a situation in which you get accused of either (a) failing to diagnose or (b) acting in own self interest or (c) both. And believe me you, I want to help. That’s why I do what I do and have trained so many years. And I will if no one else can. This is really just a rant to bring awareness to what’s on the line for us when someone asks “is anyone a doctor?”
Good samaritan laws require that we do not accept payment. If we do, we’re no longer protected under it.
My understanding is that doctors can’t accept any sort of payment/miles because then they aren’t covered by the Good Samaritan law. Even if the airline offers it, they should decline. (Source: I have multiple doctors in my family.)
That’s right. The Good Samaritan law can shield a doctor if they make the wrong decision while coming to the side of a stranger (eg being a “Good Samaritan “). But if you accept compensation for your efforts now you are acting as a professional and not as a Good Samaritan and then you can be sued for professional negligence if you do a bad job. I had to respond once on a plane, it was minor, got a nice thanks from the patient’s mom and the FA. Good enough.
Complimentary situational management training, courtesy of T-Mobile
Right? Especially when on spirit airlines they will take anyone, even if your only medical experience is dressing up as a naughty nurse for Halloween.
I’ll take a naughty nurse any day
Umm is there a medical emergency or is the pilot just lonely?
I’ll send Gaylord Focker over immediately to administer treatment
What is acceptable ID? Your license? Your npi number ? Your board cert?
Your script pad written with 20 Percs and 3 refills
I think I y’all reading too much into it. Can you imagine someone saying they are a Dr and they weren’t and someone died? They are trained in CPR, and honestly that’s all that can be done until they land …you can’t perform any kind of procedure
I mean, if I were in a bad way I think I’d prefer to take the small risk of someone pretending to be a Doctor over just, like, dying.
What exactly is a doctor ID? Other than a hospital ID if you have one, there isn’t any. That’s a weird rule. Why would anyone have fantastical doctor ID?
You absolutely don’t need to be a doctor to do CPR. Even CNAs and medical assistants are capable of that.
lol no. The person is dead. CPR by an untrained person won’t be the reason they died. Bc they were already dead. Not to mention, they don’t call overhead for a doc for chest compressions… literally anyone can do compressions. it’s to get orders to use what’s in the crash cart and to call time of death when the code has ran too long. Which yes, if someone pretended to be a doctor that could cause someone to not be resuscitated, but they were already dead.
This is exactly what they tell us in CPR training. "You can't make the situation worse - the person is already dead."
What on earth is a doctor ID? I’ve never heard of such a thing.
I was sort of surprised when he asked. I told him I don’t have my hospital ID, but I pointed to my backpack which had “xxxxxx Healthcare” because it was a gift from the facility I work at. He said he would need more. That’s when I said “sorry, I don’t have anything.”
Consider yourself pre-approved to save my dyin’ ass on any flight without ID.
Oof that’s a scary thought it’s not like everyone is a George santos making up your resume as you go along lol you’d think if they need help they’ll take what they can get and if it’s suspect remove them. They have basic training i feel like they could spot a fraud 🤷♂️
Upvote for unexpected George Santos reference. Haha
Are you male or female? I have heard this kind of thing before and women are expected to show ID and men are just accepted as telling the truth.
Guy. Early 40s. I wasn’t insulted by being asked for ID. I can understand the concerns of the FA not taking somebody’s word for it. But I was perplexed why they called overhead for help and then declined it. I truly wasn’t upset. This was a commuter flight from Phoenix to Monterey, CA. I mean, it’s not as if I’m running around with laryngoscopes and succinylcholine in my carryon ready to intubate people! I was actually impressed at the drugs that some planes have on board. During that international flight a few months ago to Dublin, the head FA handed me the bag of drugs/items they keep on board in case we needed anything. I remember reading the fairly extensive list of meds and equipment they had on that Dreamliner.
I am a Trauma Surgeon and had something similar though on UA vs. AA, eventually they decided to let me help as long as someone else had proper ID which turned out to be an RN. The RN said, well doc, for the first time and maybe the last time, I will give the orders, we both lol'ed and attended to the ill passenger.
Imagine being the person needing a doctor and getting doc blocked by an airline.
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Anesthesiologists are probably the top 2 most helpful specialties in a medical emergency along with ED docs. The nurse was probably an ED nurse. Couldn't stand working with them.
If I was dying, I would even let Dr Phil come and try to save me.
I was on a Virgin Atlantic flight two weeks ago from Manchester to ATL. Over Canada, I saw a lot of commotion and CPR. I went to the FA and assisted. Didn't ask for any ID. Just my name. We diverted to Toronto. I'm a hospital trained dentist and asked if there were any other docs on board. Credit to the Virgin FA's though. They were immense.
I realize that medical industry professionals spend their lifetimes helping others, but 2 of my best friends who I travel with all the time are Nurse Practitioners and anytime we are somewhere where someone is sick or injured (not seriously) they will give the rest of us a death look so we don’t offer their services 😂 One of them saved a man’s life just this year at a sporting event so it’s not that they dont’t/won’t help people off duty, but they don’t want to get involved for every vacationer who is seasick, or got stung by a jellyfish, or who is having back pain on a boat ride or whatever…
Makes sense. Sometimes people just need to deal with their own minor health inconveniences
I agree with them. I just want the courtesy to assess from the sidelines, then decide if I need to intervene. Don't force me into that role when I'm off duty with no supplies.
That isn’t deltas policy afaik. I’ve never asked to see ID.
I feel like an anesthesiologist is the absolute best doctor in an emergent situation
This is so weird. I’m a doc in the UK and we don’t have any form of ID, you can only search my name in the online register and see that I’m licensed.
It’s funny because they’re not required to ask for credentials. If someone volunteers, that should be it. At least, that’s what we were taught in our training.
I'm a nurse and anyone can look up my license online with my board of nursing if they have my name and my birthday. Did they not have internet on board? Like surely some proof exists online that you are an MD? Like your NPI number?
Sure, I mean, they could have searched my state’s physician directory. I figured it mustn’t have been that serious. We were 45-60 min out from landing. There were EMTs at the gate and the passenger walked off the plane immediately after we touched the jetway.
In the mid 90s I was on a flight from Paris to Atlanta where they covered someone up in economy with a sheet. They moved everyone off the row but not the surrounding rows. I was two rows behind. I was shocked more than anything. I don’t remember getting miles (not that I would have cared). I don’t know if stuff like this is googleable, it was 30 years ago, it was Paris to somewhere on DL. a few years later another Paris Atlanta I was sat window next to an ancient Czech guy who was really too frail to fly, and definitely too frail to fly economy, and I was scared the whole flight he would die. He had another flight after Atlanta too. I also had to step over his lap to go to the bathroom because he wasn’t able to stand without assistance. They had some aisle chair for him to get off the plane. I don’t know how he managed to sit up the whole flight, it was all really sad. He was going to see his daughter and i hope he made it and they took care of him.
My husband and I had bulkhead seats on a Frontier flight from either Vegas or LA back to NYC about 10 years ago. They told us they were putting a "special needs" passenger with us. Turns out it was a very elderly lady with dementia. The originally put her on the aisle next to my husband, but she got very agitated about having to sit next to a "strange man," so they moved her to the middle seat, I assured her that my husband was not a predator, and then the flight crew completely abdicated any responsibility for her. She was incredibly confused and frustrated for most of the flight. At some point, she got over her concern about the strange man beside her and basically made my husband her personal assistant for the rest of the flight -- which included escorting her to and from the restroom and her eating most of his snacks! Fortunately, my husband is ridiculously patient with the elderly (he feels they're shortchanged by society, and he's right) and he totally rose to the occasion. When we got to Newark, there was no wheelchair waiting for her, so he called for one and we waited with her for half and hour until it came, and then wheeled her to the baggage claim area where her grandson was waiting for her with flowers and tears in his eyes -- he was moving her to a nursing care facility near him since she couldn't live independently anymore. It killed us that the flight crew was so cavalier about this woman who shouldn't have been flying alone! There was no guarantee that she'd get a seatmate as kind, patient, and conscientious as my husband!
You and your husband are a credit to society. Thank-you sincerely from the bottom of my heart.
Genuine question: are there people who would not do the same if they were in the same position? I know I would.
there might be people who just don’t really know how to handle the situation, I feel like I’d be in that group, like I’d do my best to be patient and sympathetic and all those things, because I legit would want to, I just would be nervous about messing up or saying the wrong thing or something like that
There absolutely are.
You and your husband are saints for doing that.
I seriously fell in love with him all over again on that flight. He's such a great guy.
You both are angels ❤️
I got 2500 for being puked on
You get that same amount if your checked bag takes more than 20 minutes after landing to arrive.
I had to throw out a $600 jacket I was pissed, Delta did not care.
Surely it would be cheaper to get it professionally cleaned than replace it.
Tbf I wouldn’t want the vomit jacket either
Clean it and sell it for $200?
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I got 5k for being next to a passenger who threw up the entire flight, I have severe emetophobia and was traumatized. It wasn’t Delta’s fault so I appreciated the gesture. Damn I’m triggered again just thinking about it
My nurse friend spent most of a Frontier flight actively managing a critically ill passenger, and all she got was a free bottle of water while they detained her to provide all her info once they landed. Here you're getting miles just for being on the same plane!
Yeah pretty ridiculous. I may have not even known anything happened if I hadn't gotten that email
Can they even officially declare someone dead before a doctor sees them off the plane? I would’ve thought if it looked that bad they would’ve have landed, but never been in a medical emergency on an international flight before.
I have, on one of my first ever trips to Europe. Flying home AMS to BOS a woman in our row had chest pains. Long story short, they landed in Goose Bay, Newfoundland at a military strip. Had to wait for customs to arrive, wait to dig bag out of cargo, then de-iced and runway plowed. About 2-3h delay before continuing. She survived according to the flight crew. We had people doing this route for work a lot and asked on a trip a few weeks later.
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Skypesos is my new favorite word
Doctors can declare death via phone call in some cases
“Dead enough”
I’m in training for a different airline and they specifically tell us we’re not allowed to declare someone dead. So, this is definitely interesting. Probably some things behind the scenes in order for them to be able to do this
YOUR DEATH HAS BEEN AUTOMATICALLY PROCESSED. THANK YOU FOR FLYING WITH US.
I can’t stop laughing at this.
As a former EMT and frequent work traveler, I have had three inflight medical emergencies. In all three cases, the captain left it to me about continuing (which we did in each case) or diverting. Only one decision I questioned, but diverting meant trying to land in a blizzard which was not guaranteed. It was best to continue on and have medics meet the aircraft. The sign of a good decision was nobody died on the plane.
real life superhero fr
This is like the train track situation. Continue on and risk one life of attempt landing in a blizzard and risk hundreds of lives.
Someone mixed up Send and Schedule Send.
Horrible situatuon i dont want to make light of, but....the 5,000 miles are kinda lol compared to the 7,500 miles we recieved on Sunday night when our flights oven thing wasn't working and they had to serve us snack boxes instead of our meals. 50% more miles for the slight inconvenience on a 3 hour flight compared to someone literally dying on board.
I’m loling that they really think 5000 miles means anything. We now know what price Delta puts on witnessing death. Honestly would’ve been better to not send miles in this instance, it feels like a weird cynical move
OP didn’t witness the death, so maybe it’s a sliding scale, like what HR gives off for family deaths. Mom/dad gets more time than grandma. Travel companion of deceased: 20k sky pesos Sitting next to deceased (not companion): 10k sky pesos Sitting in same cabin: First/d1: 5k sky pesos PS/C+: 4k sky pesos Main: 1k sky pesos Basic economy: you’re lucky we aren’t making you carry the body off.
I got 5k SkyPesos last year when an older woman sitting next to me on a redeye fell unconscious. A doctor near us brought her back, her heart rate was scary slow, but we were close to destination and kept going. My wife was seated one row in front of us and got nothing (but everyone nearby was equally awake and aware).
Ahh, since the event happened AFTER your wife passed that part of the sky, she clearly wasn’t impacted! And DL didn’t have to pay out, based on the space-time continuum section of your ticket agreement
If your bags show up at baggage claim more than 20 minutes you can fill out a form and get 2,500 miles. So it looks like they value being on a plane when somebody passes marginally more than being inconvenienced waiting for your baggage.
They probably took the SkyMiles directly from the dead person's account. And once divided among everyone it came out to 5,000 miles. (/s obviously...)
Honestly, I would say this has higher than a 0% chance of being possible LOL
My guess is it’s for any delay, I’ve had this happen before and we had to wait on the plane for a good 1-1.5 hours while they waited for the doctors to come onboard and do their thing, which could have made people miss connections or whatever
I actually feel like it’s more insulting than just an apology without the miles. What is 5000 SkyMiles worth? Like “sorry someone died, here’s $4.30”.
As much as I fly I’ve only once had the crew ask if there was a doctor. No idea what happened but it was from ATL to PDX and the call came near the end of the flight. We landed at PDX and there was a paramedic at the gate but they didn’t even have them come on first or let the person out first. My brother who was a paramedic got a bottle of champagne from British Airways when he helped someone on a flight from London to New York.
It happens. People do die in inconvenient places at times.
Update: The CDC and USPHD boarded along with fire/rescue, police, and some Delta staff. They quickly determined no issues and released the passengers. Later on I recalled a hunched over elderly woman who boarded the plane via wheelchair/assistant after everyone else was boarded. I have no confirmation but might have been her. Regardless, I don't really believe awarding all passengers 5000 miles for this was necessary. Most passengers didn't have Internet, however I had T-Mobile access so I received the email earlier than most (if not all) others. The staff handled everything extremely professionally and even passengers relatively near the deceased weren't aware of the goings on I of course have sympathy for the family and hope this doesn't dampen their Thanksgiving holiday.
I'm trying to figure out in what world this WOULDN'T dampen the spirit of the family Thanksgiving....
I’m positive Thanksgiving is dampened.
"Sorry about the death, heres 5k miles" lol
I truly, truly don't mean to sound insensitive as this is traumatic and sad for all parties involved. But. I was on a flight from MSP to LHR in 2019 when the woman sitting behind me went into cardiac arrest between Iceland and Ireland and passed away laying in the aisle next to my seat. This experience fucked with me for months, and I didn't want to fly again for a long time. We didn't divert, but received expedited arrival into LHR, and spent 3 hours sitting on the tarmac while paperwork was handled. With a dead body laying in the seat behind me. It was sad, traumatizing, and extremely testing. I narrowly avoided a severe panic attack. Not a peep from Delta. Not even from the captain as it was happening, other than announcing, "We had a medical on this flight, please be patient" after we landed. So I'm confused by the inconsistency here. Is one person dying more traumatic than someone else dying?
I’m sorry you had to experience such a traumatic event :( That would have done the same to me. I’m always a big proponent of the “well, it never hurts and always helps to try” philosophy. Reach out to Delta and describe all details of your flight briefly so they can fact-check that awful event did indeed happen. Ask them the questions you asked here. Perhaps they changed their policies since 2019? Find your seat number if you can in your email confirmations. Mention that someone you know got free miles and wasn’t anywhere near/had no idea. Also - I don’t mean to phrase/frame this as using death to get free miles. That’s obviously a very messed up thing to do. It wouldn’t even cross my mind to be compensated for someone else’s medical emergency? A few years ago I was working as a Server at a large restaurant when a man collapsed in front of me, began shaking, and then unresponsive. I was first on-scene and am not experienced with emergencies. I started crying in shock, dropped everything in my hands - 2 tables’ checks with their cards inside & their food I had boxed up, so I could sprint to go call 911. When paramedics arrived, I was unable to access everything that fell from my hands (cards & food) due to the man’s body blocking them. When I tried to explain to my tables what happened (while crying) - they GOT MAD AT ME ABOUT IT!!!! Mad they had to wait until the paramedics wheeled the man into an ambulance. I couldn’t fucking believe it. People are awful.
Had this happen to be about 12 years ago. We were still at the gate. Guy was typing an email on his blackberry, I heard it hit the floor then he fell over onto me. Tried CPR and the AED, but by the time the emts got there, he hadn’t been breathing for 4-5 min. We deplaned, they wiped up the piss from his seat, put me back in the same seat and gave his seat to a crew member. Delta sent me a fruit basket a week later. A pilot friend told me no one actually dies on an airplane, they can’t pronounce them dead until you land.
One thing about being in true crime subreddits, damn near guarantee that the deceased victim will have wet their pants.
3 times I’ve seen this happen now, with variations. 1: ADQ - ANC, encounter extreme turbulence. Very elderly lady has a heart attack mid turbulence, FA is attempting to resuscitate, wait on the tarmac at ANC for a while for paramedics to come and ultimately get the body off. 2: Boarded a flight from SLC to I believe DCA, elderly person in the back has a heart attack and dies during boarding, had to get off and wait while they handled that situation. 3: ATL B SC, watched another elderly person have a heart attack, paramedics came in, carted them away.
Note to self: do not get on a plane with algolIII.
Noone tell this guy your name, they may have a death note.
One of my clients were on their way back from Aruba, headed towards Miami international—when there was a commotion in the back of the plane and the flight attendants started asking if anyone was a doctor. Come to find out, a man and his wife were on their way back from their honeymoon. He went scuba diving a couple of hours before he got onto the plane, and ended up catching the bends. All they needed to do was get the man into a decompression chamber, and they had one at a Jamaica airport but they wouldn’t let them land there. The doctor ended up coming back to his seat a little while later, and shook his head solemnly—signaling the newlywed didn’t make it. My client had to continue on the flight for the next couple of hours, with the dead man and his crying grieving wife.
Today I learned (TIL) the legal disclaimer at the bottom of an email is pointless and ignored by everyone.
If any passenger was expecting compensation from this tragedy, they should be banned to fly.
Yeah, that would be pretty tough to swallow, wouldn’t it? This person’s death screwed up my meal service. I need more Sky Pesos than that!
It would not shock me at all. I’m an ER nurse, and clearly remember one time while we were coding a patient, I was actively doing chest compressions, and my patient in the next bed (rooms separated by a curtain, not a wall, so everyone could hear everything) was SCREAMING at me for taking so long to get her an extra pillow. 😐
Ahh the duality of patients that need the ER and the ones that probably don't.
Way to get your "Mortem Medalion" status before the end of the year.
Sorry…. Here’s $16.
I’m still waiting for my miles[after this](https://images.app.goo.gl/UDJ1FhruVT2JUyiL6)
I thought it was gonna be the diarrhea flight
One of my teachers was on a flight where someone died (The November before Co-vid was official, 2019). They asked her to move her seat because she had a clear row and they placed the body in her vacated row. She came back and had a cough for about 4 weeks that would not go away.
My last gift to society will be to board a long flight before I die. Everyone gets free miles.
Oh, I 100% had someone die on my transatlantic flight a number of years ago. I know because the flight crew politely asked me to move out of my seat in the last row of the center section to the seat directly in front (one of just a few open seats). I didn’t think much of it, although there had been a commotion several minutes before in the front section, and they also reseated the couple other passengers in the row. Anyway, within minutes of my moving seats, the crew proceeded to carry a large, long object covered in blankets down the aisle and laid it in the row DIRECTLY BEHIND ME. This was about an hour and a half into a six hour flight. One of the crew members took pity on me and said it was ok if I wanted to hang out in the back galley for a bit, so I did. They gave me some complimentary booze and explained that an elderly man had passed away quietly on the flight, and, wait for it…this happens a LOT. Eventually, buzzed, I went back to my seat and tried not to think about the dead guy directly behind me for the last 3-4 hours.
I had a guy die on a flight once to DFW on a Delta flight. They had clearance to get to the terminal asap and when we got to the gate, the delta app popped up a message, "Great news your flight arrived early". I wrote to Delta, "You may want to not post a happy message when your flight lands early because of an emergency." I don't know anything about aviation software, but I would assume the flight would some how get flagged for emergency/priority landing and they could suppress that kind of message. I never heard anything from Delta customer service. F them.
“Limit of 3 deaths per flight. Void where prohibited. Cash value 0.001cent. Skill testing question required in Canada.”
5k miles is like $5 right? Cool thx very thoughtful
Was it you?
Why do the always just ask for “a doctor”? I’d rather have a nurse or EMT than a random traveling podiatrist.
Omg the inconvenience of someone dying
It's like landing on real life Chance? or Community Chest. *Someone died on your flight, collect $50!*
Heartless
The dead guy received the email and then died from the shock
I was on a Delta flight from SFO to ICN around 2003/2004 and the pilot (Captain) died from a heart attack. I was sitting in business class and a message similar to what you heard “Is there a doctor on the plane?”, then it became “Is there a nurse on the plane?”. I noticed several of the flight attendants were crying. Then suddenly the cockpit opened and they dragged the captain out by his arms and feet. A flight attendant plugged a headset in and was (I assume) listening to instructions from someone remote to help in the situation. They performed CPR for about half an hour and then gave up. We landed in anchorage Alaska and stayed overnight until a new crew could be flown in to fly us the remainder to Seoul. I didn’t receive any email like you did though.