Posted on 03/21/2026 1:59:44 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A horror midair death turned a long-haul flight into what some are calling a nightmare at 35,000 feet.
A female passenger in her 60s died during the first hour of a British Airways flight from Hong Kong to London — but the plane kept going, leaving her body stored in a heated galley for more than 13 hours, according to reports.
Flight BA32, pressed on to Heathrow rather than turning back — a decision sources say reflects the grim reality that once a passenger has already passed, it’s “not viewed as an emergency.”
Crew members were left scrambling over what to do with the body mid-flight.
A source told The Sun, “Obviously, the family with the woman were distraught, and so were the crew.
The situation didn’t end on landing.
Police met the aircraft at Heathrow and ordered all 331 passengers to remain seated for roughly 45 minutes while authorities investigated the onboard death.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I don’t know but I can tell you this; after spring break-up in west Alaska when the previously submerged bodies of Yupik’s who thought they could cross still unfrozen bodies of water on their snow machines (sloughs, lakes, rivers) and didn’t, perishing and only to be discovered as those said bodies of water warmed up 6 months later bringing decomposition, bloating and floating where the corpse can then be recovered, and don’t ask me why unless they wanted to prove AGAIN that indigenous peoples don’t process alcohol well because they would be sent to Anchorage for autopsy by a state coroner.
Anyway, in the transfer process of one of these unfortunate souls my fellow ramp worker didn’t possess enough core strength to make sure his end of the body bag didn’t end up ripping on the seat floor brackets (seats of course had been removed for body transport). A large rip in the black bag leaked out all pooled up fluids, damn.
I made him bleach out the aircraft deck. (C. 1986-spring)
No ...you start bloating from the gas produced by all the bacteria in your guts, etc..your face puffs up grotesquely (think of “gurning”)... it’s a very rude awakening to the final state of a perfect body that we all previously strived for ....
Not pudding for a while...
Why does the decision to continue the flight with a body in the passenger cabin seem wrong to me? My instinct would be to return to the airport from which we’d departed (no pun intended...) as quickly as possible. It just seems more respectful of the dead passenger, as well as the others. Yes, not an ‘Emergency’, per se, but it to me anyway rises to the level of something that could, and should, change a long-distance flight plan.
Any solder in combat in the old days Read: (Vietnam) and isolated on a firebase after a fire fight for a number of hours with a 90+ degree temp can attest to the smell. It took me days before my normal sense of smell to return. I have a friend that was isolated on an SF base for days during a siege and he lost his sense of smell completely for years.
“I’ve seen bathrooms “painted” with poop about 4’ high.
Like a poop Claymore?”
Except there was no “towards enemy,” it was 360*on every surface.
How, ummmm, nice for you...
I agree.
Gurning — I learned a new word because of you. Thanks.
Thank you for your service.
Interesting. Did his sense of smell return? The few times I came across that smell it would overlay anything else I smelled such as a flower or an apple.
Could be leakage. Everything relaxes.
A ‘Business Decision’ taking precedent over decency and consideration for others. One can only imagine what the long remainder of that flight was like, in particular for her family members.
The deceased was bathed in Eau de Pepe le Pew.
I worked at a gas station in high school. One evening just before closing (7:00) I checked the restroom. Someone had diarrhea and had sprayed the walls and the ceiling. I refused to clean that up, not worth $5 an hour.
He must have grabbed his ankles and did a pirouette.
One guy put rag on his face and used a water hose to wash it down (ceramic tiled).
Oh geez it was bad!
wow that was a fine story
Live people stink after a thirteen hour flight and most of them haven’t vacated their bowels in their pants.
“Next time I fly, I’ll remember to carry a small jar of Vicks. That is what crash investigators use to deal with the stench of an accident scene.”
Always carry a mask and a small Vicks inhaler for when you are forced to sit next to someone with poor hygiene/gas/diarrhea, or someone becomes deceased on the plane (probably won’t happen, but the other things probably will happen). A simple solution and doesn’t take up much space at all.
24 hours?
That’s horsefeathers
She was dead in a galley and no one knew. For informational purposes only, a galleon aircraft is where drinks and snacks are stored. In the event of in-flight meals, this is where they would be heated. The whole galley would not be heated.
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