Corpse sat in First Class

The thing I find hard to understand about this story is the way BA treated the passenger who was undoubtedly inconvenienced. I don't think they could have done much about the poor lady who passed away but not to recompense the aggrieved passenger is just such poor customer service.[V]

It does look like poor customer services - not even to offer the poor chap a refund or at least his next flight for free.

Intesting about the corpse cupboard on Singapore Airlines...... Does VS have something similar?

Mark

I thought I had read somewhere in the past, that they have used a toilet in the past to "store" a body if the plane was full - although undignified for the deceased, surely better for the rest of the cabin.

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by David
I thought I had read somewhere in the past, that they have used a toilet in the past to "store" a body if the plane was full - although undignified for the deceased, surely better for the rest of the cabin.

That's my understnding too.

Thanks,
Richard

[RichardMannion]

I've just read the article and the comments from 'people' around the world. Oh my, I'm with the guy personally - I wouldn't have been too amused if travelling in a premium class if a corpse was moved next to me and then disturbed for the rest of the flight by the wailing family.

I know empathy is nowhere on my GallUp strengths but good Lord - BA should have just put the corpse in one of the toilets and left the family where they were.

Thanks,
Richard

Originally posted by David
I thought I had read somewhere in the past, that they have used a toilet in the past to "store" a body if the plane was full - although undignified for the deceased, surely better for the rest of the cabin.

I am pretty sure this is in mentioned in Air Babylon alongwith the corpse cupboard on Singapore Airlines - apparently only on their extra long haul A340-500 flights.

Jonathan

Ohh! "Weekend at Bernies 3" coming up then.
BA realy are going downhill fast under their new Chairman. Very sad.

I'm not too sure about the comments from D Zeesed about where the body should be stored.

The 'Shotgun' seat in the cockpit with 2 highly-trained but inconvenienced aircrew...[:?]

I'm not too convinced about his name also....[:I]:)

I have been pondering this post for a few hours and I cant help but thinking that BA may not have handled the situation in a bad way, think about it.

Would you like your motherÕs body stowed in a toilet if she died onboard an aircraft?

Compassion, dignity and respect are very important and a shotgun seat, toilet or closet gives neither of these.

The move to the first class cabin was quite appropriate in my eyes and I am sure the cabin was at least quieter than econ or club. The family were obviously distraught at the bereavement as all of us would be.

On aircraft where death has occurred when either myself or some of my colleagues have been present bodies have been handled in a compassionate and appropriate manner.

With the passenger being put in the First Cabin I am sure the staff would have had the sense to put the seat in to bed mode and I am also sure that a blanket or quilt would have been respectfully placed over the body. I would not take the article as read as I am sure that a little bit of reporter manipulation of the story has taken place.

Death on an aircraft I s very difficult situation to manage but airlines generally do the best given the circumstances.

I am sure that the passenger in fist was disturbed by the outpouring of grief from the family present in the cabin and also uncomfortable with the knowledge that a deceased body was also present but I am sure he would not be complaining so much if it were one of his family members who had suddenly passed away during flight.

People often react to death in different ways but I find the whole approach of the passenger in the report (If the report is correct) to be quite shameful and lacking in basic humanity.

Should BA compensate him? Well this is a tricky one. But my thought is no as I am sure he got the attention and service level in his seat that he paid for in the ticket price. BA did not cause the death of the passenger but merely facilitated a dignified and compassionate place of rest until landing.

What would you want for your family if this happened to you whilst on a flight?????

Oh come on - for heaven's sake.

I have no problem - seeing as there are no other facilities - with putting the poor dead lady in the first class seat - but then to respond in the way that BA have to the situation - the guy is a gold card holder, a regular and loyal customer who spent £3000 on a seat and then to have to endure 5 hours of a distraught( and wailing) relative is just not on.

A refund for his trouble or some miles or something is in order.

Otherwise its very very poor customer service and whilst nothing is specifically "owed" by BA for this event they are simply being utterly unsympathetic to a valuable customer!!

Hi,
Apparently another death occured on a BA flight LHR-BOS in Dec 06.

The corpse was in this case also put in the first class seat.

Some posts report that the problem in putting the corpse in one of the toilets is that once rigor mortis has set in it can be very hard to get the pax out of the toilet.

Regards

TBS

Why not put the body in the crew quarters on the 747?
The crew could have then used the FC seats to rest as they sometimes do on other types of aircraft

The body was put in the right place by the crew as I see it. There is no way they could have put the body in a crew rest, toilet or cupboard with family members onboard. If the deceased was travelling alone, then maybe these would suffice.

BA aren't really at fault and they couldn't do a great deal more in the circumstance to keep all parties happy, the crew handled it pretty well I think.

They are however, very stupid by not offering something as goodwill to a gold car member - Nothing like trying to keep good repetative business. Fools.....

Crew quarters on a 747 are up a narrow winding stairs as I recall. This is not an easy place to move a body.

I suppose compensation when not compulsory is often awarded on the approach and manner in which the request is made. I only assume this.

I am sure that the crew went out of their way to minimise the impact of the situation in the F Cabin but it would stick in my throat if I received a complaint to ask for compensation on the back of a bereavement which in my honest opinion appears t have been dealt with in a sympathetic and dignified manner given all the circumstances of being Mid Flight.

Originally posted by jerseyboy

I suppose compensation when not compulsory is often awarded on the approach and manner in which the request is made. I only assume this.

I am sure that the crew went out of their way to minimise the impact of the situation in the F Cabin but it would stick in my throat if I received a complaint to ask for compensation on the back of a bereavement which in my honest opinion appears t have been dealt with in a sympathetic and dignified manner given all the circumstances of being Mid Flight.

Sorry to disagree with you again JB but why should the passenger have to complain or even make a request for compensation or a refund - it should have been freely offered by BA. If he then decided to forgo it then good for him - but this does not excuse BA's complete lack of business sense!!

And taking all that into consideration - if he did then file a request for some form of refund then why is this such a bad thing. I realise that it was no-one's fault but it certainly wasn't his either!!

A simple gesture from BA and they keep everyone happy!!

Originally posted by MarkJ

Originally posted by jerseyboy

I suppose compensation when not compulsory is often awarded on the approach and manner in which the request is made. I only assume this.

I am sure that the crew went out of their way to minimise the impact of the situation in the F Cabin but it would stick in my throat if I received a complaint to ask for compensation on the back of a bereavement which in my honest opinion appears t have been dealt with in a sympathetic and dignified manner given all the circumstances of being Mid Flight.

Sorry to disagree with you again JB but why should the passenger have to complain or even make a request for compensation or a refund - it should have been freely offered by BA. If he then decided to forgo it then good for him - but this does not excuse BA's complete lack of business sense!!

And taking all that into consideration - if he did then file a request for some form of refund then why is this such a bad thing. I realise that it was no-one's fault but it certainly wasn't his either!!

A simple gesture from BA and they keep everyone happy!!

I agree with you that a gesture should have been made and in my experience and those of some of my colleagues crew have gone out of their way to offer something in respect of this type of situation A seat change would have been the first consideration I am sure. But what I am uneasy about is the manner of the complaint as identified in the article. Albeit in my opinion tracking away from the true angle of the situation someone who bases a major part of their complaint on the outpouring of grief from the family may have not been as compassionate as one ought to be in his approach and maybe he carried this on with his approach to BA for compensation. I am only surmising this as I am indeed like everyone else not in possession of the full facts. But to go to press with this complaint does raise a further doubt about the compassion and thoughtfulness displayed by the passenger.

I am sure there is a lot more to this story than we will ever know but I stand by my guns in saying BA dealt with the placement of the Body and grieving family in an undoubtedly BRITISH manner with all the dignity and compassion that this sort of situation would deserve.

[honey lamb]

My view when I read this article this morning was one of sheer incredulity that the passenger even contacted BA to complain. Every so often someone is going to die on board a flight but I would imagine it is rare enough (BA cited 10 last year out of 36m passengers) and how crew will deal with that will be informed not only by whatever training they received, which will probably have gone to the inner recesses of their mind and half forgotten, but also by their own experiences of death and cultural attitudes towards it. In this instance I believe they did their utmost to handle the body with dignity and showed compassion to the family by allowing them to be near their loved one. The shock alone would prompt the "wailing" that the passenger complains about and indeed in some cultures wailing is the appropriate response to death.

So how do we react who are on the margins of such a tragedy? We are obviously shocked by it. Those who can will help and those who can't will speak in hushed whispers about the dreadful thing that has happened and try to come to terms with the fact that they are in the presence of death. For the most part people will not be considering the inconvenience to themselves nor blaming the airlines in this situation.

What has appalled me most is the passenger's statement in the article, "I just kept thinking to myself: ÔIÕve paid more than £3,000 for thisÕ". I cannot believe that someone can put such a monetary value on the passing of a human life and the grief of the family. He has done himself no favours in this article and quite frankly, if BA told him to get over it, then in my view he got off lightly!

Having said that I am surprised that BA didn't compensate any First Class passengers on the spot (Were there any others? After all 3 seats seem to have been unoccupied but there is no mention of other passengers) We have been given compensation for a lot less on VS such as V-Port going down

[Scrooge]

This is a horrible situation for not only the crew, the pax in first and of course the family.

I am sure each airline has it's own way of dealing with the deceased, there is no easy way to handle the situation and of course it will never be with the care and compassion that is deserved.

However I must comment on the way the other pax in first were handled.

The people who sit up in the pointy end of a BA 744 are the big money earners for BA, given that the pax is a gold card holder on a business flight flying over 200k miles a year with BA the first words out of BA's mouth should of been, "we are sorry you were inconvenienced, please be aware that we owe you a RT flight in first, it is just plain stupid of whoever was dealing with this pax to blow him off, the employee is very lucky I am not Wille Walsh.

I would be livid if I woke up to find a dead body next to me. [n]

I think that F was the only place the deceased passenger could have been stored with any dignity. However, I do not think it was appropriate for the daughter to be allowed to cause so much disturbance in the cabin. I know she has just lost her mother, but there's a time and a place for everything; having said that, she must clearly have been v. upset. BA should still compensate the pax in my opinion, although their (the pax's) attitude does seem a bit off.

VS.

I think BA Customer Service could of been a whole heap better, all it would take is an apology, and an offer of a free flight, I couldn't imagine if I woke up to a corpse sitting across the aisle!?! [n] They seem to go out of their way to be difficult!

They seem to go out of their way to be difficult!

"They" being those under the influence of Willie Walsh[xx(]

VS.

[Scrooge]

Willie Walsh is a business man, he understands that you do not upset to people that give you money.

I know we have to read into the story a little, but if what the pax is saying is 100% correct and I am reading it correctly he flys 200k miles a year in BA first, with BA first selling at around $1 a mile he is someone that any airline would take very good care off, to be told to get over it by any airline employee would to me seem like a grave injustice, if I was WW someone would be looking for a new job.

Originally posted by Scrooge
Willie Walsh is a business man, he understands that you do not upset to people that give you money.

I know we have to read into the story a little, but if what the pax is saying is 100% correct and I am reading it correctly he flys 200k miles a year in BA first, with BA first selling at around $1 a mile he is someone that any airline would take very good care off, to be told to get over it by any airline employee would to me seem like a grave injustice, if I was WW someone would be looking for a new job.

Ditto that!!

I'm sure BA had the same situation happen to them on a BOS flight a few months ago? The body was placed in First Class and another passenger complained.

There isn't much else the Cabin Crew could have done Ð placing the body in the toilets would have been an option but I'm sure they were thinking of the family travelling with the deceased and perhaps they deemed this disrespectful.

The CSD (BA FSM) and possibly the Captain would have the final say on where the body lay to rest on the flight; they must of thought it would have been better to prop her up as if she was sleeping.

The man thinking about his £3000 ticket is quite unbelievable I think. The deceased woman paid the ultimate price in the end, much more than any F Class ticket.

No amount of training can prepare crew properly for this.

You'd probably know better than myself, has VS had many deaths?