In-flight Suicide on LAX Flight
 

From The Sun

Man hanged on BA flight

By GRAHAM DIGGINES

A MAN hanged himself on a British Airways jet after calmly tucking into a last in-flight meal and quaffing champagne.

The middle-aged passenger strangled himself in the club class lavatories of a Los Angeles-bound Jumbo Jet which had taken off from Heathrow.

Staff raised the alarm after they realised the toilet had been locked for half an hour. And passengers looked on in horror as a doctor vainly battled to save the man’s life after cabin crew broke down the door.

The man had looped his belt over a lavatory handle to make a noose before hanging himself. A frantic call was made over the Boeing 747’s public address system to try to find a doctor among the 349 passengers.

One passenger said: “It was absolutely horrific. There was a commotion around the toilet then this poor chap was hauled out and placed on an empty seat.

“It was clear that nothing at all could be done for him. At first everyone thought he had been taken ill.

“But it was even more distressing to find out he had taken his life.”

A spokeswoman for British Airways said: “We can confirm that a male passenger died on flight BA269. We extend our sympathies to his family.”

The man is believed to have been from Switzerland, but he was not named last night.

Jet II, reading the story gives a complete different picture than your headline is initiating . . .:eek:

When did this happen?

Original article does not say.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2003001794,00.html

The title of your posting is incorrect the meaning you are trying to give or I have read I your title is the food he ate on board killed this gentleman.

He in fact killed himself...

While I see perhaps some kind a humour is being given here, I`m sure the cabin crew weren`t finding it funny and as for the man`s relatives.

Jet II I hope you don`t find any bodies hanging, it isn`t not pleasant.

Jet II
The heading under which you post is disgraceful and you appear to be using an extremely serious and distressing event to points score against BA!
Quite frankly, if I was moderating this, I would strike your name from the Prune Board!
My sympathies here go to the family of the deceased and very much to the Crew who have had to deal with this incident. To counterbalance your obvious attempt to have a go at BA, I have little doubt that the Crew involved dealt with it in a highly professional manner and showed considerably more care than you do in your post.
You are a disgrace!
Sarl

That I never thought of hanging myself! It is indeed much quicker and less painfull then death caused by airline food, it is not the radiation and the stress that reduce our life expectations with ten years, IT IS THE FOOD!

it all becomes very clear to me now;)
Greetz

I think BA reinforced the wrong door..

;) yep, to open a locked toilet door only take a gentle touch and and the knowledge of where to apply it. Then again "breaking down a door" (with an axe perhaps:D) is a little more "media material.
Next we will read that Steven Seagall had boarded the plane after he had docked the 74 with a C152, crawled his way through the Air con ducts (like the ones in a building) and used his mastering of martial arts to beak down the door (taught by a Nepalese monk who had adopted the poor kid as he had been abandonned by mummy, at the bottom of the Himalayas but who survived after he moved in with a family of racoons-or their local equivalent;))

I agree though, the title is somewhat misleading and its meanining far from acurate.

No need to break down the door when you can simply slide the latch and push it in. (Knowing how to slide the latch is the thing - don't even need a pen - as I have seen CC do). Done lots of weekly checks where I had to unlock U/S toilets....

But yes the title is misleading, was expecting to read an article on someone choking on a fish bone or such....

Sarl, well we can thank d’Lord that you’re not moderating it old son !

Moving on, actually the stiff....... I mean, the deceased...... died pretty much as per the title of this thread, i.e.

He was on a BA flight.
He did indeed eat some airline food ( and quaffed champagne, apparently ).
He then went in the bog and died, albeit by his own hand.

So what’s the beef – you got a problem with facts !?

Ok, the title of this thread is maybe a bit tongue in cheek, but no more than that, and what’s posted is merely repro’d from the ‘Online Sun’

As for the crew having to deal with it…. well, perhaps as per the saying, if you can’t take a joke then perhaps you shouldn’t have joined, and noughts as strange as folk.

..... of course one could hypothesise that the stiff, was trying to be just that, i.e. that he was doing a solo mile-high-club imitation of Michael Hutchence ?!

…… and yes, I do know that in the latter’s instance the coroner discounted the auto eroticism theory.

In closure, BA stands for Bloody Awful, doesn’t it ?

Well Devils Advocate

Your inane post really did bring the smile back to my face.

Thank you for that.

Sarl

Well it made me chuckle...

Dear DA

<<In closure, BA stands for Bloody Awful, doesn’t it ?>>

Better luck with the interview next time?

TIC, PTC

As for the latch on the toilet. The CC who taught it to me at the tender age of 8, she made a big mistake. I spent my childish years unlocking doors of poor unsuspecting passengers.

Note to kiddies out there, don't do it to your Dad. They always somehow know it's you!!!!:D :D :D

I don't think that discussing the technical details is going to get us anywhere.

My sympathy is with the poor people who had to cope with the incident, whether staff or passengers.

Of course I feel pity for anyone who is sad enough to kill himself, but this was a damn selfish way to do it.

Indeed FS, i.e. if he was that much of a runt as to be able hang himself inside an airliners crapper, it's perhaps fortuitous that he didn't find himself getting sucked into the vacuum powered bog - now there'd be a story........ and I can see the headline now: ”Man sucked to oblivion inside airline toilet !”

Ps. peeteechase – W.r.t. interview at BA ?! Well I've never applied to them, and wouldn’t want to. I.e. the airline I work for goes to far more interesting & 'exotic' places than BA ever would, treats me excellently and, overall, I'll earn more than the folks at BA do too ! And if proof were needed we've a couple of senior ex-BA chaps working for us and you couldn't drag'em back to Big Airways - 'nuff said. :D

He didn't eat the crew food by mistake did he?:p

If the toilet door was a solid panel then a simple push of the latch would be enough to open it .. If it was a bifold door then the locking hinges would also need to be removed, which given the postion of the body inside the compartment might or might not be that easy . Crew are taught both methods in case of passenger heart attack, stroke, or decompression etc.

I think that DA has probably put a slant on this thread that is appropriate. If we all got deadly serious about everything life would be a drag. Can't eat this or that! Can't do this........................and so it goes on.

As for the CC I imagine it was a difficult situation but they are trained for just that sort of thing.

It is right to be sympathetic but I am sure there have been many other much worse instances on board an aircraft.