Given the millions of people who travel by air every day, deaths do happen onboard flights with some frequency. However, British Airways’ handling of a recent incident is leaving many scratching their heads. I’m not sure what exactly to make of this…
British Airways crew handles onboard death in unusual way
The Sun reports on an incident that happened on a recent British Airways flight from Hong Kong (HKG) to London (LHR). Flight BA32 was operated by an Airbus A350-1000, and the 5,994-mile journey ordinarily takes around 14 hours.
Around an hour after takeoff, a woman in her 60s reportedly passed away suddenly, which is of course incredibly sad, and left her family distraught. The pilots didn’t deem the situation an emergency, and decided to continue the flight to London.
According to reports, the pilots asked the flight attendants to store the body in a lavatory and then lock it, but this proposal was reportedly rejected by the crew. Instead, they wrapped the body in blankets (or some similar material), and then placed the deceased woman in the rear galley for the remainder of the flight.
This is where it gets strange. The story suggests that the rear galley on the A350 has a heated floor, which some crew overlooked, and it’s claimed that this caused the body to decompose at an accelerated rate, leading to a foul smell in that part of the plane.
The flight, which had 331 people onboard, was met by police upon arrival. Passengers reportedly had to stay onboard for around 45 minutes upon landing, while an investigation took place. Some of the crew on the flight have reportedly been on trauma leave. I can imagine how tough this must’ve been on them. Imagine wrapping up a body, and then going back to serving people food and drinks.
In a statement, British Airways claims that “all procedures were correctly followed,” and that their “thoughts are with the woman’s family and friends.”
This situation is strange on a couple of levels
First of all, my thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased, as I can’t imagine what an unpleasant situation this was for them. As I see it, there are two separate issues here — there’s the general question of what to do if someone passes away shortly after takeoff on a long haul flight, and then there’s the foul smell topic.
Indeed, procedures for handling deaths onboard do vary by airline, and there’s also some discretion, given that each case is different. Back in the day, Singapore Airlines’ Airbus A340-500s (now replaced by A350-900ULRs), which flew the world’s longest flights, had a special “closet” onboard in case someone passed away. However, that’s not something that you’ll otherwise find on commercial aircraft.
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer as to how to handle a situation like this. There’s obviously a balance between trying to operate punctually, trying to show respect toward the deceased and their family, and trying to avoid an unpleasant situation for other passengers.
Personally, it seems to me like storing a body in the galley for 13+ hours is not the ideal solution. We can argue about the merits of returning to Hong Kong if the person has already passed, though I think the proposal of storing the body in a lavatory was probably an all-around better way to handle this, and it’s how airlines usually handle this. But that’s just my take, and I don’t claim it’s right.
Now, regarding the “foul smell” and heated floors, that’s what confuses me most. A350s have heated floors in the galleys? Is this just something I never knew about? Or is the information there not quite correct, and did the heat from the galley ovens somehow cause issues?
I’m a little skeptical of the claims here, and I almost wonder if people may have imagined there was a foul smell, given that they knew what happened, when in reality that foul smell was something else (people do lots of smelly things on long haul flights!).
Bottom line
A 14-hour British Airways flight was a bit more eventful than planned, after a passenger onboard passed away around an hour after takeoff. While the pilots had reportedly recommended storing the body in a locked lavatory, the crew seemingly decided to store the body in the rear galley instead.
Passengers onboard claim that there started to be a foul smell toward the end of the flight, and question if this was the correct way to handle something like this. At least this handling sounds better than that Qatar Airways flight some time back, where a deceased person was placed in a seat next to a couple.
What do you make of the reported handling of this onboard passing?
