Not really. You place a rubber sheet on the seat, then a couple of towels underneath them. The first two can happen but NOT the third! Besides the man was dressed to give further absorbtion.

Do live people not fart?

12 hours, covered up, low humidity in the cabin - the stiff will last for a good few hours I reckon. Can't see it bloating up for a good while.

From the OP "becoming airborne a call went out over the PA asking for a medical professional"

Who was the medical professional? It could have been (presuming one was on the flight not stated in theOP) a nurse, dentist or a doctor. From reading the past posts, all (in my reading) come to the conclusion that this was a cardiac arrest.

What if the death was caused by some contagious disease, take your pick. I would hope airlines would carry body bags for this scenario. I would be very concerned sitting in the vicinity of a person who has died from TB for twelve hours in a sealed tube.

I beleive Air New Zealand have quite a bit of experiance of this happening (nothing to do with their service) due to the long routes served and the number of grand parents travelling to see grandson/ sons /daughters etc who have emigrated. I was informed that they used toilets to keep the deceased in. Furthermore on one occasion they nearly ran out of these storage areas. I beleive this could be a bad taste story / joke:=, but Tightslot may wish to correct me on this.

I'd be even more concerned sitting in the vicinity of someone who's alive with TB. ;)

Basil.....Ok I'll go along with your TB post reply. I'll draw the line with Mark CA
"and even potentially ejaculation,":confused:

Does that mean one can have a 'spurt' when one passes? Takes me all my time alive:uhoh:

We carry a bag and biohaz kit.

These situations are always complicated, and there are no hard-and-fast rules that I can offer. It's tough on everybody when somebody dies and as each scenario tends to be distinct, it is not possible to provide specific guidance.

Fo the OP - factors to be taken into consideration for a turn-back would include the need to burn off/dump fuel to reach a safe landing weight, flight crew hours restrictions and hotel availability should (as would be likely) a night-stop back at the originating station be required: If at home base, a new crew would need to be sourced. Set against that would be the inconvenience and distress caused to other customers as well as the legals.

The most common practise when a Death-On-Board occurs would be to cover the deceased with a blanket, place an oxygen mask over their nose/mouth and make as "comfortable" as possible (yes, I know): The intention being that casual onlookers will be unable to tell for sure that the person is deceased as opposed to being unwell. This is not always possible since not everybody who dies does so in their seat - It can often be in or outside the toilet area. I have heard of bodies being placed or left in toilets and this cannot be ideal: Distressed relatives would hardly be expected to approve. Once again, you have to make it up as you go along to a large degree.

It is possible that apart from those customers in the immediate area, relatively few others were aware of the situation if the body was at the very front of the aircraft. It's not really good form to drag The Departed around the cabin to the cheap seats.

Generally speaking (not a medic but 21 years in the world of beareavement) TB takes time kill. They would have been suffering from severe respiratory problems for some considerable time. Of course, a person might have the disease and die of an unrelatred cause. As was pointed out, if they are breathing - they are possibly spreading the disease, once dead, they are not.

There are, basically, three things that take a person's life fast and without warning: Heart attack (various kinds) and hemorrhage - in multifarious places - and a blockage. The heart can fail in ever so many ways, the person can have no warning (I took the funeral of a man aged 28 who appeared fit and played football and exercised regularly but died whilst being 'in good health' until the last second.) Or the expected kind, my father had been suffering from a failing heart for two years but was full in control of himself and died one lunch time aged 78. It could have been an hour later or the next week but it was then. So you can never know when your heart is going to fail.

Internal Hemorrhage (bleeding) can occur in many places and lead to a long illness or rapid death. It depends on a range of factors and if the bleed occurs in the brain (and the person lives) it's called a Stroke. If a vein or artery gives way, you bleed internally and this can be VERY difficult to discern even for a professional. If the aorta gives way - the person will be on the ground in five seconds, unconscious in 15 seconds and dead within two minutes. Some arteries have an Aneurysm that grows slowly over two years and, one day, it pops.

There is also the category of Embolism and Thrombosis, which is an obstruction in an artery (e.g. pulmonary embolism) these can also be debilitating in the longer term but are often without warning and immediately fatal. The embolism can be formed in many ways, like a blood clot that forms and then moves along until it reaches a place too small for it to pass through and Kapow. Heart attacks can be caused by one of these. Some are made up of small bubbles of air which can be as bad as a clot. So, so many ways to die! I'm amazed we live as long as we do.

What is known is that, in most of these cases, it makes little difference if 999/112 is called. The movie and TV world of people working for 10 minutes and then saying, "We got him back" is just that - TV world. In the UK, there are (approx) 600,000 deaths a year (it varies) which means something around 1 per minute. Once in a while it's going to be on board.

If the man had been taken ill during loading or taxi, then they would doubtless have stopped but, when he became ill, there was no way of knowing that he was about to die. By that time, they were airborne. Not nice for anyone and remote chances of death at departure. If the wife of the man had absolutely demanded to turn back, I doubt there's a Captain that would have said No.

With regards to exhalation of breath and flatulance: The exhalation usually occurs if the body is 'folded' when being moved and the lungs are compressed but not all bodies will make a noise. Flatulance can occur later on but is more likely to be caused (in this case) by the change in atmospheric pressure and that affects every person on board. As for the suggestion that a dead body can dispense (ahem) a very particular kind of bodily fluid? No.

I sit to be corrected on any of the above.

I wonder if a kinder approach would have been to pop an oxygen mask on the old boy, let his wife hold his hand for the "last" twelve hours of his life, and carried on the flight regardless, until she recieved some TLC at the other end?

Difficult call for the medical professional.
How does one pronounce death in-flight?

Problem with that Gingernut...... "I wonder if a kinder approach would have been to pop an oxygen mask on the old boy, let his wife hold his hand for the "last" twelve hours of his life, and carried on the flight regardless, until she recieved some TLC at the other end?"

I fear the deceased may have gone rather cold and started to go stiff, riga mortice starts a few hours after death.

Firstly, you cannot pronounce death in flight. It can only - legally - be done at destination and his place and time of death would be once a suitably qualified medic examined him, probably in the seat once everyone else had left. If there is a qualified doctor on board, who conducts all the correct tests, it would (I think) make no differance to the legal declaration in another country. As to the practical side. When someone is dead - you know! The legal bit is just the legal bit.

Likewise, if you die at home with no one to witness and call for help, and are only found two days later, your death (in the UK) will be listed as the day you are found. It does not matter what the forensics say, that is the legal date of your death as it is the only certainty.

Rigor mortis will set in at different times for each person. It might start very rapidly, it might not. It might last for only an hour or two, or a prolonged period. It might affect the whole body to be rigid or hardly at all. You can never tell and the temperature of the room can also affect it's progress.

However, during a 12 hour sector it would have started and, possibly, have completed.

Sorry if these answers are too detailed but it is one of my fields of knowledge!

Not at all - fascinating stuff.

Still wondering though what movies the poster that wonders if dead people ejaculate has been watching.

and ... perhaps the confusion has arisen because it does/can happen with death by hanging, whether self-inflicted or judicial. It has certainly been recorded on a number of occasions after judicial hangings .... :eek:

Violent death does change/constrict bloodflows in the body. The electric chair also produces changes in the male body - probably also the female but not so noticeable, or with such (past) frequency for observation.

PAXboy...... " The electric chair also produces changes in the male body" I'm curious, please tell more. If I think what your thinking:ok: I'm applying a/c>d/c leads now. Hope I'll be back soon:eek:

dazdaz1 Really! :rolleyes: What do you think this forum is? :=

Now, if I am to answer your question, how am I to do so without giving TightSlot heart failure - which is where this thread started ... :ugh:

OK. Basics and using proper dictionary language, not the sniggering behind the fuel bowser language. :p

You are probably aware that the male reproductive organ has blood flowing through it at all times, well for some of us anyway :cool:. It is caused to change it's (ahem) altitude by closing valves on the 'outlet' side. It is all to do with hydraulics but, unlike an aircraft, we only have one hydraulic power system.

Thus, with the outlet closed (well, almost as you still have to have blood circulating) and if your heart is still pumping, the fuselage will rotate and you can tell your associated female to make sure that she is ready for flight. :ok:

The 'command' that operates the outlet valves is complicated and can be affected by a number of things but that is not the issue here - use Wikipedia under erec**** dysfunction.

When a male is electrocuted, it can often cause the 'outlet valves' to spasm (along with the rest of the body, poor sod) and yet the heart is still pumping for a short time. The result is what some of you may recall from your far off teenage years. :E

It is also the case that some male animals (sheep in particular) can be stimulated to dispense a certain fluid (Nudge, Nudge ;) ;)) by electrical stimulation. This is part of a system for artifical insemination used in farming that enables a far more calculated and consistent breeding of sheep. A known breeding male is 'tapped' and this is then tested for potency and diluted with things like egg white, before being artificial placed into ewes that are in season - turkey baster style. :ooh:

The method of acquiring this material is the careful provision of a DC electrical current to the prostate gland of the hapless sheep. The sheep is restrained and a small probe with a conductive tip is placed into the rectum and thus against the prostrate. Around the front, a condom like device has been provided by the assisting Cabin Crew (sorry TS could not resist) and the low DC voltage is momentarily applied and matters proceed in the time honoured way ... This is related from memory as I have seen it done on a farm. :8

It therefore stands to reason that an unfortunate man being electrocuted (accidentally or on purpose) may have both a change in elevation and a discharge of a non-electrical type. http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...milies/eek.gif

I am reliably informed that the DC system works on human males and can be used for medical purposes when natural methods are not available. http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...lies/worry.gif

I have been told that some males use low DC voltage for exactly this purpose as a variation in their lives and find it rewarding. :mad: May I hasten to inform my readers that I have expressly NOT witnessed this process on anything other than sheep on the farm. :}

Why can't you pronounce death in flight?

A doctor or indeed in some countries a paramedic can pronounce death perfectly legally subject to certain criteria. If not you would be ethically and possibly legally required to continue CPR until on the ground and a (different/another) doctor pronouncing death.

In a previous life I was assured that a (in my case) UK registered aircraft counted as UK territory and as such was covered by UK law. How a UK doctor on a Singapore airline (for example) woks I don't know.

Certifying death (in the UK anyway) is a different matter however.

HTC

To add information (which you may not wish to know) to that which PAXboy provided, there has been some work done in Australia in using a radio controlled implant to enable suitable function. The place where I was working was consulted about using one of our integrated circuits for the radio. Engineers being what they are, you can imagine the ribald comments!

I don't think it got anywhere because of cost, size and possible battery lifetime problems.

"I'm sorry darling, my battery has never run out before ..." :sad: Not to mention, Where would you put the switch? Perhaps somewhere it can be easily reached by your flight companion? An that would only be the start of it, thanks radeng.

In order to avoid too much about the details there is:

• Seeing that death has occured
• Medically qualified pronouncement of death
• Legal certification of death

As with so many other things to do with life and aircraft - it's complicated by being in international airspace and an a/c may land at it's native base with a dead native on board or arrive down the line with a native of a third country who was travelling alone. Etcetera!!

For your edification:

10 Bodily Functions That Continue After Death