Airbus corpse locker, really

flyover

flyover

New Member
Airbus is planning for everything with their new super-jumbo. Dead passenger? No problem, stick them in the corpse locker:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/001200405121075.htm

Now that's full service.
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whoa whoa..holdd on. Now how often does someone pass on an airline?

I'm interested in this stuff, my second future career choice is a funeral home director.
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I can't find it now, but there is a picture of the "freezer" on either a 747 or an A340 over at a.net. Apparently some of the cabin crew likes to napes in there. I guess it is probably the only fully flat bed in an aircraft.

Ethan
 
Although they might put a passenger who died enroute in one it's probably used more often to haul bodies from one place to another. Lots of people want to be buried somewhere other than the place that they died. And I've had friends who flew more than a few bodies from place to place. Get a job with a small Part 135 operator and I can pretty much guarantee that sooner or later you'll do it too.
 
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Although they might put a passenger who died enroute in one it's probably used more often to haul bodies from one place to another. Lots of people want to be buried somewhere other than the place that they died. And I've had friends who flew more than a few bodies from place to place. Get a job with a small Part 135 operator and I can pretty much guarantee that sooner or later you'll do it too.

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At AA they just put the body in the cargo hold with the suitcases, just gotta make sure you position it right, and act dignified when handling it. It happened once while I was there but I was on break so I didn't have to deal with it, but from what I heard the guys (Teenage new-hires) accidentally dropped the casket.
 
I'm sure it's just to transport the dearly departed to their final resting place. If a passenger died in route you'd just cover them up until the police and coroner could claim the body when you landed.
 
Actually, we taught this to our new-hires:

Nobody 'dies' on our airplanes. They may be 'unresponsive', with 'no detectable breathing' and/or 'no detectable pulse'. But we are not qualified to say someone has died. We are required to continue with CPR for at least 30 minutes or until relieved by emergency medical personnel.
 
The page won't open. Can't imagine they need a freezer for that anyway...

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AA they just put the body in the cargo hold with the suitcases, just gotta make sure you position it right, and act dignified when handling it.

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That's how it's done at all airlines. Once they are in a casket, they are embalmed anyway, so there is no longer a need for refrigeration.

My first experience with "HR" (human remains) was when I climbed on top of the white cardboard enclosed casket (they are always enclosed and on a pallet) and tried to kick and push it out of the bin on a Super 80. I only realized what it was when I crawled on top of it to push from behind and was on all fours over some dead guy looking down at the "HEAD" sticker and funeral home paperwork! Did I ever get out of THAT bin fast...

A guy from TWA once told me some stupid ramper tried to free load one in the rear bin using a forklift...until it slipped off. Good thing they were dead already.

From news of the weird a few years back: A lady made the comment that everytime her dad flew XYZ airlines back home, they lost his luggage. Well, you guessed it, when dad died and they shipped him home- they lost dad. She said "at least he got to find out where they send his bags".
 
If they are just transporting a body they put it in the casket inside of a box and then put it in the cargo hold, that would be way too gruesome to have a dead body in the cabin, they even go the extent to put the family on the other side of the plane so that they can't see the body being loaded onto the plane.
 
A few years ago here in DEN, while loading a plane for CO their contracted ground grew left one out in the rain for a few hours. It was one in the cardboard and then wrapped in plastic. When they loaded it, the cardboard fell apart and the body fell on the ramp in the plastic wrapper.
 
At my last company, we had a passenger pass on a 20 minute MSN-MKE flight.
 
Several years ago I was on a Delta flight SLC-ATL when a man and his son boarded and sat in front of me. (Middle two seat in FC on an L1011). The old gent looked awful. The lead flight attendant was alarmed and said to the son that his father didn't look well enough to fly. The son produced a letter from a doctor stating that he could travel but required oxygen while enroute. Sure enough a Red Coat then arrived with the oxygen that had been pre-ordered. They had apparently started the day somewhere in Montana and were going to Alabama, and this was his second leg. The first had gone off without a hitch.

The FA still wasn't convinced and called the Captain. Much conversation ensued but eventually they decided to let him fly. After we took off the FA's were incredibly attentive to the guy. The son admtted that he was taking Dad home to die. It was his last wish.

About 3 hours into the trip the Captain came on to say that Atlanta was backed up due to weather and we'd be holding for about 45 minutes once we got to the Atlanta area. About the time we entered the holding pattern the lead FA came to check on the old fellow. She immediately could see he wasn't breathing even though the oxygen was flowing. The FA's started CPR and called for a doctor. As luck would have it, three responded. They worked on him for a few minutes to no avail. All agreed he had been "gone" for at least a half hour if not more. One doctor told the FA to tell the Captain to "turn up the air conditioning" if we were going to be circling for a while.

Not two minutes later we broke off the holding pattern and were cleared directly to ATL to land. We were on the ground within another ten minutes, max.
 
I read somewhere a while back that flights leaving Vegas have like 5x more deaths on them than any other route. Had something to do with all the old geezers drinking/smoking and so on while getting depressed about losing all their money and then entering the stressful environment of an airplane.
 
Because of the number of pax capable of being onboard, Airbus is offering the option of installing a brig with a capacity of 5 persons, for use by the FFDO or air marshal in holding detained pax. It'll be on the lower deck, aft left side.
 
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whoa whoa..holdd on. Now how often does someone pass on an airline?

I'm interested in this stuff, my second future career choice is a funeral home director.
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In 25 years I've had two that I know of. One was an elderly gentleman who was traveling with his wife. At the end of the flight the flight attendant noticed the old genteman was laying against the window "asleep". She asked his wife next to him if he was OK. Her reply, a calm: "no, he's dead."

The other was a lady who apparently had a brain anurism (sp?). We had a neuro-surgeon on who recognized it and told us she needed to be in a hospital ASAP. She was basically gone when taken off the airplane, pronounced at the hospital.

None for the last 15 years or so. So I'm doing better.

One of the big problems in recent years is people traveling with terminal conditions who just want to get home to die. It has come up so often the company had to issue guidance on it. The scenario is the pax goes into some kind of serious attack. The family traveling with them begs the crew not to stop short of destination because of the situation, "they are going to die anyway".

I believe CAL had a situation like that, continued to destination, then got sued by a family who had to sit next to the passenger and see him die.

What a loverly subject.
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Although they might put a passenger who died enroute in one it's probably used more often to haul bodies from one place to another. Lots of people want to be buried somewhere other than the place that they died. And I've had friends who flew more than a few bodies from place to place. Get a job with a small Part 135 operator and I can pretty much guarantee that sooner or later you'll do it too.

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If you're dead before boarding you ride in cargo. I've probably carried 4 bodies already this month. Routine.

And in my early 135 days we did a lot of business hauling stiffs (ahem) the deceased. Very up close and personal in a Cherokee 6.
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So, if there is an accident aboard a flight carrying a dead body in cargo, and people die in the crash (hey, we are on unplesant subjects already) do you count the dead body in the hold as a fatality on the flight or not?

Ethan
 
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