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In 1972, we were going on home leave from England. We had left Heathrow and crossed Ireland and were headed home. The captain came on and asked if there was a doctor on board. A guy got up and went up to the cockpit. He came right back out, and the captain came back on and asked if there was a MEDICAL doctor on board. Turns out there were no doctors on board. A lady had started hemorraghing, so the captain turned the 747 around and we landed at Shannon. Doctors/ambulances met the plane and the lady was taken to the hospital there. After we took back off, a lot of the pax were complaining that they were going to miss their connections; why couldn't she have waited until we hit the point of no return, they asked. We missed our connection in Baltimore and had to spend the night there in a hotel. People can be real jerks.

Did they want the body moved to coach, or did they want it jettisoned out of the cabin?

They wanted it kept in First Class, and their shock and horror duly noted in all the papers, so they would be in good position to sue BA for the mental anguish they suffered when the airline failed to prohibit this man from dying whilst on board an aircraft.

-ccm

This story reminds me of an old Alaska story told to me after I had returned to the lower '48 from a long spell (and a couple of winters) in Fairbanks, '74-76.

A USCG Warrant Officer I knew well spun this true tale:

The Warrant and a YN1 were on recruiting duty in Alaska. Hired a private charter in Fairbanks to fly them to Bethel and another point further west.

The two of them showed up on time...colder than one could even imagine...still dark, of course. Jack Stallings, the pilot (who I knew personally, so I know this story to be true) asked the Warrant Officer if he would like to sit in the co-pilot's seat for the flight. He did so.

Aircraft airborne. heading west. Still pitch dark. Yeoman asked if they would like a cup of coffee from the large thermos aboard...and asked the name of the other passenger "asleep" in the small passenger compartment, as the YN1 was going to offer him a cup of coffee, as well, when he awakened.

Jack laughed, and advised the Yeoman that the other passenger had been DEAD FOR TWO WEEKS; stiff as a board, and was heading out to his home in Bethel -- to be buried in the Spring, after the thaw. **S**

True story. Warrant officer was Richard Hamel, W-4, USCG.
Event occurred in 1979. And, I knew Jack Stallings, the bush pilot, from my days up there in Fairbanks with Bechtel Corp.

Have a great week, fellow Freepers.