Body Rides In First Class For Remainder Of Trip

Travelers riding in the first class cabin on a recent British Airways flight were distressed to find out they were sharing the cabin with an elderly passenger who passed away halfway through the transatlantic journey.

The London Daily Mail reports the American man suffered a heart attack about three hours into the six hour flight from London to Boston on November 28. The flight crew made an announcement searching for a medical doctor, and they carried the stricken passenger into the galley area between business and first class on the Boeing 777.

The crew then tried for over 30 minutes to revive the man... but he was declared dead. As the flight was nearly full, the question then became, where could they put the man's body for the remainder of the flight?

As it turned out, the first class cabin on Flight 213 was only 80 percent full. So the crew carried the man to one of the 14 first class pod-bays -- which feature seats that can recline into a bed -- and propped the body up in a semi-reclined position, covered with a blanket.

"Four male stewards came I carrying the poor chap who was in his 60s or 70s and casually dressed," said one of the first class passengers, identified only as a female computer executive in her 30s. "But he was a bit too big for them. Another passenger lent a hand as they propped him up."

"They wrapped him in a blanket and strapped him in and semi-reclined the seat. But his head was exposed and leaning to one said, as if he were asleep," the woman added. "I could see the top of his head throughout the flight. The chap's wife came in an sat with him on the little buddy stool at the bottom of the bay in front of the seat. She was very distressed. We could hear her sobbing."

"It's not very enjoyable when this happens," she said. "But the staff were very good."

A spokesman for British Airways said that out of 36 million passengers flown annually by the airline, about a dozen people die while aboard its planes each year.

FMI: www.britishairways.com