Case.In.Point.
Posted by AllieB on August 16, 2010
In my very first entry, Be Advised, I mentioned that I do not prefer flying and included a frightening video that indicated why this was so.
Since that post all of three weeks ago, the following absurdities have taken place in the so-called “friendly skies:”
1. On July 21, United Flight 967 from Washington D.C. to L.A. went thru aggressive turbulence and was forced to divert to Denver, where 22 people were treated for injuries. (Source)
2. Today, August 16, an Aires flight bound for Colombia, South America was struck by lightning. Only one person died, which, given this is how the plane looked after the emergency landing, is unbelievable. (Source)
do NOT want
3. And, lastly, on my plane ride to Paris a week ago, I saw a woman die. She was old and it was her time, but it was really unpleasant. She had a seizure six hours into the flight, and the flight attendants and various passengers worked hard to revive her, but I think she died kind of as soon as it happened – she was laid out in the aisle about six inches from my seat and I saw EVERYTHING. We had to divert to Ireland where her body was carried off the plane in a some sort of makeshift sling…I know this was worse for her and her loved ones than it was for me, but that still didn’t make it okay. She was so close to my seat that flight attendants keep pushing at me to move – well, it’s an airplane and my options were limited, so I sat in my sister’s lap for an hour (the guy next to her had taken a sleeping pill meant for cattle and slept thru the whole thing – lucky).
WTF. I’m just glad to have made it home in one piece. Next time I fly, I plan to do so under the influence of that sleeping pill meant for cattle.
S said
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!
A said
your life, to me… at times… is one out of a sitcom. a very dark, yet hystercially awesome one
Allibert said
I don’t know what part of this makes you think “hysterically awesome” – but I’ll take it
SRM said
It’s unclear how many people die on planes each year. During the 1990s, doctors and some victims complained that airliners were not properly equipped to handle medical emergencies such as heart attacks.
That prompted passage in 1998 of the Aviation Medical Assistance Act, requiring portable defibrillators and beefed-up medical kits on planes. The rules did not take effect until 2005, though some airlines adopted them earlier.
American Airlines was the first carrier to install defibrillators, beginning in 1997. The devices, which apply an electrical shock to restore a normal heartbeat, have saved 80 lives in the past 10 years at the airline, Hotard said.
No agency collects detailed information on medical emergencies aboard airliners, but studies have estimated that about one passenger has a medical emergency for every 1,000 flights, said Mark Gendreau, vice chairman of emergency medicine at the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts.
An airline-sponsored survey in the late 1990s found 187 deaths and near deaths during a one-year span. That translates to fewer than one death per million passengers.
SRM said
Atlanta police stationed at the airport respond to calls about dead bodies on airplanes a couple of times a year, said Officer Eric Schwartz, a police spokesman. Talton said the situation was rare, but flight crews are trained to handle “a number of situations on board.”
Airlines are not required to track or report the medical incidents they handle, so an exact tally of in-flight deaths is hard to determine. MedAire, an Arizona-based company that staffs doctors on the ground to advise flight crews in a medical emergency, counted 89 deaths for the flights they handled in 2006, which represents about one-third of the world’s commercial flights.
If the death rate is similar for the rest of the flights, annual deaths on airplanes could exceed 260.
» Seattle: The Sunshine State Baxter Bark Twice said
[…] it’s become glaringly obvious that I am the proverbial black cat of air travel. Exhibit A: the woman who died on my plane to my France. That sucked. I know it was way worse for her, obviously, and her loved ones, but it was no picnic […]
I have a new hobby! » Baxter Bark Twice said
[…] activities, and, amongst other things, I would love to visit a vineyard, see Mont-St-Michel, and have zero women die on my airplane. (Hey, E Rock – have I told you that […]