We had a passenger die on one of our B757 flights northbound from Freetown / Sierra Leone to London Gatwick / UK.
For a while his condition seemed reasonable but it then suddenly deteriorated and we diverted to Malaga in southern Spain
Imho our Cabin Crew were total heroes, doing their utmost to save this passenger, including mouth-to-mouth / CPR, for the 25 minutes it took to get the aircraft to Malaga... as well as deal with all the other passengers and prep the cabin for landing. My hat goes off to them !
At Malaga the Paramedics were quick to board the aircraft, during which time the other passengers were instructed to remain in their seats. The Paramedics made a deduction that chap was beyond resuscitation.
A short while later (20 minutes?) a Doctor attended the aircraft and declared the passenger 'clinically' dead.
Some time after this (about 1 hour?) the Coroner attended the aircraft and declared the passenger 'legally' dead.
Nb. By this point we'd moved all the other passengers into the terminal building.
Once these two formalities (i.e. Doctor & Coroner) had been completed the deceased was placed into a body bag, strapped to a stretcher, and removed from the aircraft by some burly chaps.
We all then helped to tidy the cabin, re-boarded the pax, and then proceeded on our way to Gatwick. The total delay to our originally scheduled arrival in Gatwick was only about 3 hours.
Nb. Along the way there was a report to make to the Spanish and British Police, plus filling on of an ASR / MOR.
On arrival at Gatwick we got a call from the Coroner in Malaga who informed us that they'd already conducted the autopsy and that the reason for death was that some of the bags of cocaine in the passenger’s stomach had burst!
The chap was travelling on a Nigerian passport, not that that has any particular inference, other than that the Spanish authorities accepted the body regardless, and imho the handling of this incident by the Spanish authorities was very good !