We go from dinner service to dealing with a corpse': What happens when an air passenger dies

Flight attendants, like Jay Robert, must react quickly when a passenger unfortunately passes away mid-flight. They need to switch rapidly between providing service, administering life-saving measures, and handling the deceased and managing passenger emotions. Robert states that they need to quickly assess the situation, such as dealing with a passenger's death while simultaneously needing to provide catering services to 300 passengers.

Jay is a cabin manager for a major European airline and previously worked for Emirates, with over a decade of flying experience. Like all crew members, he has received training in handling passenger deaths, but has only experienced it firsthand once. He says that deaths on planes are "very rare," and that passengers are more likely to die on long-haul flights due to prolonged periods of inactivity. Some crew members never encounter an in-flight death during their entire career.

A 2013 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicated that deaths mid-flight are "extremely rare." The study investigated emergency calls made to medical communication centers by five airlines between January 2008 and October 2010, finding that only 0.3% of patients experiencing medical emergencies in flight died.

Last month, an Australian couple recounted their "distressing" experience on a Melbourne to Doha flight, where they were forced to sit next to a deceased passenger after a woman died mid-flight. Michelle Lin and Jennifer Collins stated that the crew placed the body, covered with a blanket, next to Mr. Lin for the remaining four hours of the flight, without offering him a seat change. Qatar Airways stated that they followed appropriate guidelines and apologized for "any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused."

BBC News interviewed crew members and other aviation experts to understand how in-flight deaths are typically handled, what regulations exist regarding storing bodies on planes, and what it's like to work on a flight where someone has died. Crew members themselves cannot confirm a death; this must be done by medical personnel. Sometimes, if a qualified medical professional is on board, confirmation can be done on the plane, but more often it is done after landing. Most airlines follow the International Air Transport Association (IATA) guidelines on measures to be taken when a passenger is presumed dead, but specific policies vary by airline.

Marco Chan, a former commercial pilot and senior lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University, said that in the event of a medical emergency, crew members will provide first aid and seek assistance from medical professionals on board, while the captain will use telecommunications systems to obtain instructions from emergency medical doctors on the ground. If necessary, the captain will divert the flight as soon as possible. However, it is not always possible to save a passenger's life.

According to IATA guidelines, if a passenger is presumed dead, the deceased's eyes should be closed, and they should be placed in a body bag (if available), or otherwise covered with a blanket up to the neck. Space on planes is very limited, and finding a suitable location to place the body that does not disturb other passengers or compromise the safety of the aircraft is a challenge. According to IATA regulations, if possible, the body should be moved to a seat away from other passengers or to another area of the aircraft. But if the plane is full, they are usually left in their seat.

Iwan Stevenson, associate professor of air transport management at Coventry University, said that on narrow-body aircraft (typically used for short-haul flights within the UK or Europe), there is not enough space to "really shield passengers from what's happened." Space on these planes is "very, very limited." He said: "If someone dies on an aircraft like that, the likelihood is they would need to be left in situ in their seat." Professor Stevenson acknowledged that this is "very unfortunate, very unpleasant," but crew members must prioritize the safety of the aircraft.

Jay said that crew members will "try and afford the deceased some dignity," placing them on an empty aisle seat and using curtains, blankets, and dimmed lights, but they may not have many options. The body cannot be placed in the galley, in case it blocks emergency exits. Jay said it also cannot be left in the aisle, in case of an emergency evacuation, or in the crew rest area on long-haul flights.

Jay said that it is also difficult to physically maneuver a body in such a confined space. This is precisely what happened in the Qatar Airways incident, when Mr. Lin said that the deceased passenger could not be carried down the aisle. Aviation experts and crew members say that if a medical emergency occurs, the plane may divert to save a passenger's life, but this is usually not done if the passenger has already been presumed dead. Mr. Chan said: "There is no point in diverting."

Professor Stevenson said that the captain will notify the airline's operations center and air traffic control of the passenger's death as soon as possible, and local government departments will meet the plane at the airport. Local government departments or representatives from the airline will contact the family of a passenger traveling alone. Allie Murphy, who hosts the "Red Eye Podcast," experienced one passenger death during her 14 years as a crew member.

A male passenger traveling alone from Accra, Ghana, to London collapsed in his seat. After the passenger sitting next to him alerted them, the crew realized that he was not breathing normally and had no pulse. The crew moved the man to the galley to perform CPR. Allie recalled: "You're stuck in a tin can that's not designed for moving around." But because the meal carts had been pushed out to prepare for meal service, there was more space than usual in the galley.

Allie and another crew member performed CPR for 40 minutes, but were unsuccessful. The captain then decided to divert the plane to Lyon, France, and Allie and her colleague knew they should buckle up for landing, but they continued to perform CPR. She said: "We didn't want to give up on him." After landing, paramedics took the passenger away. Allie recalled that he was pronounced dead from an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

"I held him for the last moments of his life," she said. "He might have chosen someone else, but he got me." The plane took off again after the diversion, and the passengers were "very quiet and somber." But upon arrival at the destination airport, one of the passengers on the flight began shouting at her because he had missed his connecting flight. "That was the only time I ever told a passenger where to go," she said.

Witnessing a passenger's death was a traumatic experience for Allie. "I went home and sat in the bath and cried. For about a week afterwards, I could still taste that man's breath," she said. "It was a bit harrowing for a while. I couldn't watch anything to do with CPR for a long time."

Jay said that airlines provide support to crew members after a passenger death, including psychological counseling and the option to have their work schedules cleared for a few days so they can process what happened. Allie and her colleagues debriefed with the airline after the passenger's death, and the airline "reassured us that we had done everything we could." Afterwards, she was able to arrange to work a month of shifts with a friend, as she felt "a bit shell-shocked."

Jay says that because crew members are not accustomed to passenger deaths, it can be a particularly distressing experience when a passenger does die on board. Jay said: "We're not doctors, we're not nurses. While we're trained to deal with these kinds of incidents, we don't face it every day, so we're not really immune to it."