What would you do if a passenger died

A friend of mine recently was on a airline, and it diverted to Heathrow or something instead of Luton because of an ill passenger. The reason being an airline wouldn’t want to be liable for not trying to get that person to treatment quickly. The airline a few hours later took my friend on the short hop to the airport he was originally to land at. I thought with a death in air, it would be the same – you never know if something could be done (you hear of extremely bizarre cases where someone has woken up in a mortuary. Do they really have commercial pressures especially considering litigation?

But me, in my light aircraft, it would scare the hell out of me. I’d remain able to fly but my usual stuff like looking out, coherent R/T I expect would be terrible. It would be a case of a Pan to London D&D or another major ATC unit. I’d even consider plonking the plane down at Luton (who aren’t part of the Strasser scheme) and deal with the £1000 ‘landing’ fee later. I saw that programme where the untrained pilot with his deceased friend, and admired how he remained calm and even landed a plane at night. That’s someone special.

I think an " untrained pilot" who is able to do three go arounds at night with no instrument lighting, no decent horizon and a dead passenger alongside has received more training or experience than he is letting on.

Normally to certify someone you spend a couple of minutes staring at them intently and listening to their chest for any tiny crackles or heart sounds. Good luck with that in an SEP. Ill people – or even just with a faint – can look fairly convincingly dead. Pulses can be weak. Diagnosis or first aid whilst piloting would be very difficult.

Personally I’d divert – not just in case there is something that can be done but because it would look unseemly not to, and there’d be a lot of scope for ‘what ifs’, whether realistic or not.

Ideally I’d want the seat back in case the passenger slumped against the controls. Reduce altitude if safe – better oxygenation. Cabin heat off in case there’s carbon monoxide about and maybe open a window. Loosen ties, top buttons etc. Semi-seriously, if you were in an aircraft that allowed it, it might be a reasonable idea to try inverting the aircraft for a time to get blood back to the brain.

Any other suggestions?

What would you do if a passenger died

Make it look like a natural death.

Make a MayDay call, and get down as soon as possible – which might (given the low performance of my craft) well be an out-landing. While descending, any spare attention to be spent at getting emergency medical help to the chosen place of landing. The very last thing I am capable of is to be even remotely sure someone is dead – except for obvious cases as stated, but in such a case there’d be two corpses to dispose of.

There is a fundamental difference on how to handle this on a small plane and in an airliner.

In the airliner you have medically trained flight attendants and a good chance to find a doc. If a person dies and reanimation fails, not much point to land, if they tell you to land, that is what you do, preferrably at a place where his chances mount not decrease.

In a SEP 4 seater where you are alone with the guy, there is only one bit, land. ASAP, nearest available field and tell ATC to dispatch the nearest emergency unit to that field. ATC will be accomodating in such a case and even land you at LHR if need be, where they have the best chances to treat any sick pax. With the airport density we do have in central Europe, you should be on ground in less than 15 minutes almost everywhere. And then, if you have the choice of 6 mins to a unmanned local field where an ambulance will need 20 mins to reach and 8 mins to a full airport with resident ambulance, I’d go for the larger airport any time.

Also here, avigate, navigate, communicate is needed not to loose the airplane and create more problems.

Instantaneous events are fairly rare, most of the time there are warning signs. I had this twice so far and in both cases was on the ground inside 10 minutes, once in ZRH and once in Valence (France). In both cases, ambulances were waiting when we vaccated the runway.

@Urs: yes indeed, rather land a bit later if it means being closer to emergency medical support. To me this might be most counter-intuitive as I am normally not allowed inside controlled airspace. I quite believe ATC wouldn’t make a problem – they couldn’t, anyway, once a MayDay has been called. Wonder even if the aerodrome operator would apply normal charges; but if they do, they would have to be settled by the patient’s health insurance. Not that one wonders THAT, when the RHS suddenly goes very silent.

Make a PAN call

Get the aircraft on the ground ASAP.

Get the “incapacitated” person off the aircraft and into the hands of the medical services.

If the person is indeed dead this shows that as commander of the aircraft you took all posable steps to ensure the safety of your passenger ( remember if life is at risk as the aircraft commander you can wave just about any rule )

Getting the “incapacitated” person off the aircraft and into the hands of the medics results in death being declared at the time of medical examination and saves the aircraft commander from a shed load of paperwork …………. Yes the CAA do have a death on board form !

If he is dead, it doesn’t matter what you do. But if he is still alive, and you can’t know that, his only chance of survival is to get him as close to an ambulance as quickly as possible. Every year we are required to attend a first aid course and sometimes we try cardiac reanimation in the narrow aisle of a business jet. This might just be possible with a small person, but a male adult is going to die in the air. And while seated, there is no chance for reanimation at all, even if it is done by other passengers or flight attendents. So land at the nearest possible airfield and inform them so an ambulance will meet you there.