What happens when someone dies on your flight and where do they put the body

Airlines have become accustomed to dealing with death on their planes. And flight attendants have some interesting protocols after someone dies on-board.

When a passenger falls sick on a flight, sometimes the worst can happen and they can die while still in the air.

The Sun explains what happens when a traveller passes away, and what flight crews must do while in the air.

If someone falls sick on a plane, cabin crew are required to perform emergency medical care on that passenger.

With planes being cramped spaces already, it can be difficult to do this discreetly, with medical attention such as CPR often done in the aisle of the plane or in the galley.

Journalists from The Sun recently tried performing CPR on a plane with British Airways – and the tight conditions made it a difficult experience for other passengers nearby.

“All Ryanair aircraft carry first aid equipment, in full compliance with EU safety regulations, and all crew are trained in first aid procedures, including defibrillators, which are carried on board,” a Ryanair spokesman said.

“Should an incident occur in flight which requires medical intervention, our crew divert to the nearest suitable airport and request medical assistance to be on standby before landing.”

While crew are medically trained, sometimes even professional staff are unable to help.

If the passenger then dies, bodies are often moved to an empty row or business class, away from others on board, and are covered by a rug.

Protocols differ between airlines. Picture: iStock

The procedure differs depending on the airline.

Speaking to Business Insider, flight attendant Annette Long said she usually covered up the body with a blanket.

“I would probably put a blanket over the person so it would become less of something to look at,” she said.

“You want to maintain dignity and respect for someone who passed away. You don’t want anyone staring at them. That would be really sad.”

Taking to Quora, travellers have shared their own experiences of people passing away in the air.

One commenter said her husband passed away on a long-haul Air New Zealand flight between Los Angeles and Auckland.

“We were in business class and he went to sleep in a lie-flat sleeper seat and did not wake up,” she said.

“When he would not wake up I got a flight steward who then went and fetched a passenger who was a doctor.

“He performed the usual signs of life tests and declared him deceased approximately four hours prior to landing.

“He stayed in his sleeper seats covered with a blanket for the rest of the journey and I lay beside him and held him until we landed.”

User Dave Samwell said he had seen it happen once.

“In my hundreds of flights I had this happen once,” he said.

“On a long-haul flight, if there are some spare seats, the cabin crew have a curtain they can put up around a section of three seats.”

Flight attendants will usually cover the body in a blanket. Picture: iStock

Another commenter said when someone died on a flight she was on, it “carried on as per normal”.

“A woman sitting two rows behind me on an 11-hour flight from Frankfurt to Singapore had stopped breathing on the last leg of the trip,” she said.

“The woman’s immediate neighbours were allocated new seats as they lay her across the row of seats.

“Once it was determined that there was nothing else they could do, they covered her body with a sheet (but not her face) and the flight carried on as per normal.”

Rather surprisingly, passengers cannot be declared dead, according to law.

While travellers can have an “apparent death in-flight”, they can only be declared officially dead by local authorities after landing.

Flight crew also have a secret code for referring to passengers who have died.

If you hear them talking about a passenger called Jim Wilson on your flight, that most likely means there is a dead body on board.

The phrase HR also means there is a dead body on the flight, which is abbreviated for ‘Human Remains’.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and has been republished here with permission