Freeman Brothers was first established as a funeral director in Horsham, West Sussex, in 1855. The company now has three more offices across the county – in Billingshurst, Crawley and Hurstpierpoint – and continues to provide dedicated funeral services to these communities. A news story about a death on a long-haul flight recently caught our eye – Becky considers some of the implications of this type of situation, and shares some professional insight…

The BBC recently reported on a situation whereby some passengers spoke out following an incident involving a death on a flight. It was an interesting situation to read about and, being based near a large international airport, is something that we as funeral directors have come across many times.

As one of the experts quoted in the article states, deaths occur on board flights more often than you may think. Very sadly, some are related to stowaways, but more typically, the person who has died is an official passenger who has taken ill during the flight.

One of the main difficulties in the situation of a death on board a flight is that commercial aircraft aren’t set up to deal with medical emergencies. The best course of action when someone is likely to die or has died is usually for the flight to proceed to the planned destination – or, if that is still very far away, the flight may instead divert. In either case, this means transporting a deceased person within the cabin – the hold cannot be accessed whilst in flight, and anyone who has been on even one of the largest planes in service will know that they are far from spacious. The interior of aircraft are very much designed to be as efficient as possible, meaning that cupboards and spare areas just don’t exist.

This news story reminded me of a book I read several years ago, which I found highly informative. Flight Risk by Dr Stephanie Green recounts the author’s time spent as duty doctor at Heathrow, during which she attended many deaths on board that had occurred during inbound flights. She makes the same point – space is at a premium, and so the best option for storing a person’s body for the remainder of a flight is generally within a spare passenger seat.

There are various reasons for this. Partly, it’s about the safety of those who are still alive and on board – putting the deceased person on the floor would present a trip hazard, whereas in a seat, you are able to restrain the body by use of a seatbelt. For the deceased person, a seat is also a lot more dignified of a position than the floor, which is something that funeral directors are always keen to impress upon members of the public – we genuinely take care of those we are given the responsibility of, and their dignity matters.

In the instance of a death on board, it is also important to ensure that the body is disrupted as little as possible. An investigation into the death will need to take place, and so they must be taken care of in order to ensure that no further damage takes place after their death – a seat provides this security.

The scenario the BBC reported on was clearly distressing for those who witnessed it, and I found it interesting to reflect on this. Again, the size of the aircraft is a hindrance to any lifesaving efforts, and there is no choice but for crew – and passengers, should they have the expertise – to use the space available and attempt to care for someone in close proximity to other passengers. Again, there’s no such thing as a standby treatment room.

It’s quite possible that nearby passengers have never seen such procedures at close hand and in real life, and they also may not have witnessed a death, which can be a distressing experience in any scenario, never mind in your immediate vicinity when you aren’t expecting it. It’s very easy to see how other passengers could be traumatised, and feeling that they would benefit from some support given the situation.

What the aviation industry is known for being very good at is ‘black box theory’ – learning from difficult incidents and improving their practices as a result. In this case, it sounds very much like the best efforts were made to save a life and, when that wasn’t possible, crew followed known procedures. What perhaps wasn’t considered effectively at a time of high-stress, was how to improve the immediate experience of others nearby. I hope that those impacted – passengers and crew alike – are able to access the ongoing support that they would benefit from.