Expert breaks down exactly what happens when someone dies on a plane
Topics: Travel
Gregory Robinson
Featured Image Credit: Getty stock photo
Topics: Travel
It’s one of those uncomfortable but curious questions people may ponder when flying thousands of feet in the air: what actually happens if someone dies on a plane?
There are processes in place to handle the death of a plane passenger. Ben Vos, a mortuary coordinator, has explained his work at Schiphol Airport to CNN.
Along with a representative that handles border control and a coroner, who will make a preliminary evaluation for the cause of death, Vos will enter the aircraft after passengers have disembarked after landing.
The deceased passenger will be placed into a body bag and removed from the aircraft through a rare emergency exit behind the wings and transported to the mortuary without other passengers noticing.
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This ensures that the deceased, as well as their loved ones who they may have been travelling with, are given respect and privacy.
Schiphol Airport in The Netherlands has a dedicated mortuary area. Vos and his team collaborate with doctors, airline and airport staff, medical examiners and government agencies to organise death certificates and customs declarations.
They also work with priests, rabbis, imams and other religious figures to support families in mourning from different religious beliefs.
The mortuary at Schipol Airport can organize repatriations - they receive deceased travellers in transit from other countries and prepare the remains of others for flights out of the Netherlands, and they have coffins on hand for transporting deceased passengers.
This process is known as repatriation of mortal remains (RMR) and you should double-check that your travel insurance company covers the cost. It may come under the wider benefit of medical transport.
This also means you should be truthful about any medical conditions you may have or have had in the past when buying travel insurance.
“I always say get travel insurance before you go traveling all over the world,” Vos told CNN.
A former fight attendant previously detailed the reality of what happens when a person passes away during a flight.
Mandy Smith, who previously worked for Virgin Atlantic, spoke to LADbible about the official procedure they have to take in the tragic situation.
"This has not happened to me, thankfully," Smith said during an episode of Honesty Box. "It has happened to a friend of mine, where they've had a passenger pass away on the flight.
"We used to have to put passengers in the bathrooms, and then lock the bathrooms off."
This was a way to give the deceased person privacy, and also keep the body away from other passengers, but there was a problem.
"Because they would be seated on the toilet, as they sat there - if rigor mortis set in - then they would be then stuck in that position, and they wouldn't be able to fit in their coffin."
But there is a way to prevent the need for this, which is ensuring that a corpse is laid out flat.
Smith added: "Unfortunately, now, we have to lay them across the front of the seats and try and calm their loved ones down.
"Treat them with respect, cover them with blankets, and maybe just cordon the area off with blankets tucked into the overheads, which is what I would probably do."
She added: “We'd need to contact the ground services to be met by an ambulance or the coroner. We wouldn't really do it as an emergency landing, we'd just treat it as a normal landing if that person's definitely passed away."