Flight attendant reveals morbid reason why rules changed if someone dies on board
Sadly it is part of life that people die on planes while they're flying through the sky, with specific rules and regulations in place should the worst happen.
But those rules were changed due to a rather morbid reason, one former flight attendant has explained.
Mandy Smith was a member of cabin crew for Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic for more than 12 years, flying across the world making sure passengers had the best experience possible when flying with the premium airline.
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The Brit has revealed exactly what happens when people try and join the mile high club while also dishing her top tip to making sure that free upgrade comes your way.
Mandy has also hit out at the most annoying thing passengers can do while explaining the important reason your phone has to be on airplane mode.
Sitting down with LADbible TV to answer your questions during a recent episode of Honesty Box, Mandy also explained what happens when somebody dies on a plane.
And she opens the lid on how things have changed due to a very particular reason that would make a funeral difficult.
"This has not happened to me, thankfully. It has happened to a friend of mine, where they've had a passenger pass away on the flight," Mandy said.
"Now, we used to have to put passengers in the bathrooms, and then lock the bathrooms off.
"But because they would be seated on the toilet, as they sat there - if rigour mortis set in - then they would be then stuck in that position, and they wouldn't be able to fit in their coffin.
"So, 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."
Mandy also explained what the law says if someone dies on a flight, with cabin crew officially having to keep going to their final destination.
She said: "If they passed away on board, it's the law that we, as cabin crew, have to keep going. So, we have to keep doing any kind of resuscitation until they're deemed to be deceased.
"So, if it was an accident that happened on board, or if they had a heart attack, we would then just keep going doing CPR.
"But if it was someone who passed away from natural causes, or another kind of ailment, then obviously, we wouldn't need to do anything to them then.
"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."
Tom Earnshaw