Woman dies on QF 2.

[drron]

So we think we have problems.
Woman dies on board Qantas flight from London to Sydney

 

[Denali]

Very sad for the persons family and the crew and pax that helped/knew of the event.

 

[Pushka]

Very sad for all involved.

I’m just surprised it’s a rare event to be honest. Given the age that people travel at now.

 

[Matt_01]

I think I read it is not an uncommon occurrence. In Oct 17 my +1, daughter and Mother-in-Law few SIN-ADL and a passenger died on the flight. My +1 mentioned that after landing they could not disembark until the police (AFP?) had come on board.

Reading the article sounds like they put the a380 down in ADL, I did not know ADL could accommodate the a380.

 

[Pushka]

I think I read it is not an uncommon occurrence. In Oct 17 my +1, daughter and Mother-in-Law few SIN-ADL and a passenger died on the flight. My +1 mentioned that after landing they could not disembark until the police (AFP?) had come on board.

Reading the artificial sounds like they put the a380 down in ADL, I did not know ADL could accommodate the a380.

Me either. Maybe it was a light load or something? At that time other than that 4am courier flight the skies would be empty. Maybe the runway can cope but not the terminal with embarkation/disembarkation.

 

[OZDUCK]

Looking on the net there a few photos of A380's at Adelaide Airport - Emirates, Etihad & QF included. And a couple of videos of take-offs.

 

[jb747]

Adelaide is a normal alternate/destination for the 380....meaning it can be used without restriction.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Reading the article sounds like they put the a380 down in ADL, I did not know ADL could accommodate the a380.

Me either. Maybe it was a light load or something? At that time other than that 4am courier flight the skies would be empty. Maybe the runway can cope but not the terminal with embarkation/disembarkation.

OT on a sad subject but ADL can accommodate the 380. I was at the airport in October 2008 when VH-OQA toured major airports before entering commercial service. We do also get EK and QR 380s diverting here en route to SYD and MEL.

 

[jb747]

It’s amazing how widely spread this story is, given that passenger deaths are not uncommon.

 

[thekman1964]

Couldn't think of a better way of going. Doing what I love - traveling!

 

[Melburnian1]

It’s amazing how widely spread this story is, given that passenger deaths are not uncommon.

I put that down to media knowing 'if it happens on QF, we can treat it as clickbait' but there may have also been a person on board who was employed by that media outlet, and perhaps even a journalist. Could not resist.

milehighclub previously informed us that for QF, one a month is typical.

On LCCs like JQ, all other things being equal it would have to be fewer as age profile of JQ (and TT) passengers seems younger. Yes, exceptions but I'm talking median age.

Agree with Pushka that given so many people 75 plus travelling, it's surprising not more die on flights (especially males given typical shorter lifespan.) Longer flights must also increase the chances.

 

[Quickstatus]

2016 ABS data:

158504 deaths
6.5 deaths per 1000 population

480 passengers on A380

Maybe 1.5 deaths per year per A380 assuming 480 passengers onboard 12hrs/day

Over an operational fleet of 10 (net of 1 in maintenance)
= statistically 15 deaths per year per A380 fleet?

.......

BTW folks
Non Aboriginal Infant mortality 2.8/1000
Aboriginal &TSI infant mortality 6.2/1000

 

[jb747]

Looking at it slightly differently.

Assuming an average life span of 80, and an even age spread amongst passengers.

Life span is 700,800 hours. Using a flight time of 14 hours, then the odds for any given person on any flight would be .0000199. But you have 500 people, so .009988 of a death. If the aircraft flew one flight per day, then 3.6, per aircraft, per year. So, across the fleet of 12, then you'd be looking at 43 deaths per year.

Obviously, the age spread is not even, so the overall number is lower, but still not an unusual event.

A death won't necessarily result in a diversion either. No point if they have already died.

 

[Quickstatus]

Has anyone sat next to a recently deceased passenger?

What’s the cabin crew practice here?
Move deceased to empty row at back
If flight is full - sit deceased at a window seat?.

Problem with this is the Rigor Mortis (post mortem rigidity) setting in within 4-6 hours and lasting for a further maybe 8-12 hrs which would make removing the passenger at the end of flight very difficult.

 

[Matt_01]

When the passenger died on the flight MrsM was on I seem to recall her mentioning that the person was left in the seat as the person was travelling with partner. Apparently some of the in flight service were interrupted but not sure to what extent as well as announcements for medically trained passengers there were a couple of doctor and nurses who volunteered to help.

The other pax who was in the same row as the deceased was moved from Y to J and was seated next to my mother-in-law.

This is just second hand information and was an SQ flight not sure how other carriers deal with the situation.

As mentioned up thread they were held on board until the police and or AFP arrived and did an initial investigation/ look around.

There are few articals on the subjet on the web.

 

[blackcat20]

A woman died on my mum's flight to the US, Air NZ in J. Not sure which seat she started in but she was left in or moved to row 1 and covered with a blanket. Other pax were advised to access bathrooms via the other aisle if they werent comfortable going past her.

 

[mrsterryn]

Had a male older person have an apparent heart attack on our internal flight to San Francisco.
We couldn't disembark until the emergencies services ,both police of some description and their version of ambulance officers , had come one board to take the body off
The body was actually dragged down the centre aisle on some sort of tarp.
Couldn't be nice for the spouse to see her deceased husband being removed that way.
After that the plane was moved to another exit point

 

[jb747]

You'll normally be held on board until the police say you can go. I've never heard of waiting until the body is gone though. That's always been well handled in my experience.

 

[Berlin]

Disn’t I read somewhere that long haul planes have a “corpse fridge” somewhere for these cases or did I fall for a hoax there?

 

[jb747]

Apparently the Singair A340-500s had such a space, but nobody else specifies it.