Flight attendant discusses protocol for people dying on planes

Cabin crew are very busy during flights looking after the plane passengers. While most of the time this involves making sure everyone is fed, watered and comfortable, sometimes flight attendants have to deal with tragedy. Deaths do occasionally – and sadly – occur on aircraft.

But what happens to the dead body if someone dies mid-flight?

A cabin crew staff member has taken to social media site TikTok to explain just that.

Sheena Marie, 25, has worked as a flight attendant for two years, according to news site Insider.

She revealed in a video that really there is nothing much crew can do when someone dies.

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“If someone’s already incapacitated, like they’re laying in their seat and you know they’re dead and everyone around them is like, they’re dead, we’re obviously going to check the pulse and all that,” she told her TikTok followers.

“But if they have like a heart attack and died there’s literally nothing we can do about it.

“We can’t like start CPR and stuff like that.

“We are just going to wait until we get to our final destination.”

“If someone’s already incapacitated, like they’re laying in their seat and you know they’re dead and everyone around them is like, they’re dead, we’re obviously going to check the pulse and all that,” she told her TikTok followers.

“But if they have like a heart attack and died there’s literally nothing we can do about it.

“We can’t like start CPR and stuff like that.

“We are just going to wait until we get to our final destination.”

Cabin crew will try to make things better for those sitting near the deceased by covering the dead body with a blanket.

If possible they will move them to an empty row at the back of the plane.

“We’re gonna keep that dead body wherever they are,” said Sheena Marie.

“If there’s enough room on the plane like one of the back rows is open, we’ll move the body to the back row, and we’ll try to like lay them down and like cover them with a blanket.”

“It does cause like a scene because that plane has to be taken out of service for a while,” Sheena Marie said.

There are three ways deaths are categorised on a plane, according to MedAir, a support service for flights.

These are: An unexpected medical emergency, a terminally ill passenger travelling for treatment and someone who knows they are sick but wants to travel.

Interestingly, when a death happens on a plane the deceased is not actually declared officially dead until they land as only medical professionals can call a time of death.

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