Corpse in First Class Deucedly Inconvenient

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British Airways had an elderly female passenger die en route on a flight from Delhi to London last week, and with nowhere to stow the body, moved the body plus bereaved daughter and son-in-law to first class. Money quotes for the story come from British first-class passenger Paul Trinder, who comes across as something of an insensitive cad. He does have a flair for the dramatic though. After the jump, a selection of Trinderiana.

I woke to see cabin crew maneuvering what looked like a sack of potatoes into the seat. Slowly, through the darkness, I realized it was a body. At first, I thought I was dreaming. Then I was convinced it was a big wind-up.

It was a complete mess -- [the flight crew] seemed to have no proper plans in place to deal with the situation.

I didn't have a clue what was going on. The stewards just plonked the body down without saying a thing. I remember looking at this frail, sparrow-like woman and thinking she was very ill.

She kept slipping under the seatbelt and moving about with the motion of the plane. When I asked what was going on I was shocked to hear she was dead.

The corpse was strapped into the seat but because of turbulence it kept slipping down on to the floor. It was horrific. The body had to be wedged in place with lots of pillows.

Then the relatives were allowed to sit in First Class and spent the next five hours wailing and weeping.

It was terrifying. I put my earplugs in but couldn't get away from the fact that there was a woman wailing at the top of her voice just yards away. It was a really intense, primal sound. I felt helpless. Grief is a very personal thing; it's not as if there was anything I could do or say.

When you have a decaying body on a plane at room temperature for more than five hours there are significant health and safety risks.

The police even started interviewing me as a potential witness, although I had no idea what had happened to the woman. I just kept thinking to myself: "I've paid more than £3,000 for this."

Still, perhaps the best part of the story is the footnote that Singapore Airlines has installed special "corpse cupboards" to avoid just this sort of unseemly display. Corpse cupboards! Sounds almost cute.

BA sat corpse in first class [Sunday Times]
British airways admits strapping dead passenger to seat [IndianMuslims]