News of the Weird: Hows this for a Bad Airline flight?

[tucsoncoyote]

related Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17683917/

Okay I've heard all the "Airline Horror stories" about being stuck somewhere in the middle of bad weather, and being delayed to the point where you miss your connecting flight. Even the proverbial losing your luggage...

But this one takes the cake.. and I'm going to relate it as if you were the Passenger in this story.

You've Just finished a business meeting in Delhi India, and you're on your way home To London, England, and you have had a hectic day working on merger deals, business acquistions and what not.. so after the plane takes off and reaches cruising level, you ask the stewardess for a Pillow and a blanket.. After all this is gonna be a long 9 hour flight..

So thre you are sleeping soundly and the flight is quiet.. You're thinking of your promotion for a job well done, and you haven't a care for the world.. you're in perfect slumber.. for well over 4 hours...

Then you get jostled. You think it's air turbulence or maybe some Clear Air Turbulence. You are unaware of what is going on, you turn your head to the side.. and as you open your eyes, you have right next to you an elderly woman with a completely glassy eyed stare, looking right at you, and what's even stranger is that she's looking right back at you.. and she's not even blinking..

in fact, She's not even breathing... her skin tone is a dark purple.

The Passenger in fact, next to you... is in fact, absolutely, positively, dead.
as in pushing up daisies,
as in shuffling off that mortal coil,
as in she's an Ex-Passanger!
(ahem, sorry a little Monty Python humor there...)

Yes this story is true folks... It happened this last week, and in fact the events of what happened are thus.. The elderly lady and her daughter were on their way to London, and during the flight (In coach/economy), the elderly woman just croaked.. and she's in Coach...so what did British Airways do?

They upgraded her to first class, that's what they did! (along with her daughter, who was weeping silently about her deceased mom).

Let's face it, if getting stuck in a blizzard or losing your luggage is bad.. this one is by far the worst.. The Poor businessman wakes up to see that the woman next to him has been dead for half the flight, and right across from him is her daughter crying her eyes out..

Frankly British Airways did the best that they thought they could do but in the end, this was one trip this guy will never forget...

(also feel free to share your own "Airline Horror Stories here).. you might think yours was bad, but this one? Takes the cake.. hands down..

:coyote:

[Frank Castle]

I don't want to sound mean or anything, but that was pretty funny. The best part was when they upgraded the dead woman to first class.:p

[tucsoncoyote]

I don't want to sound mean or anything, but that was pretty funny. The best part was when they upgraded the dead woman to first class.:p

Oh I've heard a lot worse, Like 10 years ago, i heard a story about a 93 year old senior citizen in Chile who had to go to the government to prove that he was not dead, so he could claim his retirement benefits (Much like any senior citizen here in the states would for social security), and the government officials had him wait in line for 4 hours then handed the guy a stack of paperwork to fill out in triplicate no less. This so stressed out the elderly man that he had a heart attack and died right in the governmental office.. and to think... he died trying to prove he wasn't dead...

Of course when i was working for a certain transportation company,(Which shall remain nameless), one of the things they asked a lot of times to us service representatives is if they could purchase a travel ticket for their dead aunt/uncle so they could travel to the hometown they were born in to be buried. Other times the grieving relatives would try to convince us to have them put their dearly departed relative in the baggage compartment to claim they were baggage, thus not paying for a ticket...

And believe me I even have heard a story just recently where someone complained about a bunch of airline baggage handlers who treated dead soldiers like they were baggage.. and believe me, that one got national press.

so in the end, dying on a plane (While in flight) is pretty unusual granted, but still having the poor business man having to spend almost 5 hours next to a rotting corpse does sound kind of humorous..

:coyote:

[Chris Wood]

The best part was when they upgraded the dead woman to first class.:p

Yeah, you've got to complain until you're purple in the face to get any service these days.

[tucsoncoyote]

Yeah, you've got to complain until you're purple in the face to get any service these days.

You know Chris, your commentary here reminds me of a story I heard back about 10 years ago, and this was a true story...

The story was that a 93 year old retiree in Chile (I guess Chile has a retirement system) found out that his retirement checks had mysteriously stopped and he was outraged when he heard about this. He went to the office of the Goverment Services (sort of the equivalent of our Social Security System), and stood in line waiting to be seen for over 4 hours. Finally after the wait, he talked to a representative to see what could be done. The representative of the Government explained to him that the reason why the checks had stopped was because someone had told the service that our retiree had in fact expired. but the Representative then handed to the man a stack of papers and instructed him to fill all the forms out so that his checks could be reinstated. As he started to work on the paper work, the stress of the waiting plus the frustration of doing said paperwork, finally got to the poor fellow, and nature gave this guy a one way heart attack. where instantly he fell over face first into the pile of paperwork, dead.

Which comes back to your original comment: Sometimes you've got to complain until you're purple in the face to get any service these days. how true that is... But as for our Lady who died on this flight? I think she got the best end of the deal.. More frequent Flyer miles..(yeah like that will help her situation.):p

:coyote:

[Kaoru]

Frankly British Airways did the best that they thought they could do but in the end, this was one trip this guy will never forget...
I don't think that was a good idea, though. They should have landed the plane in India for 3 reasons.

1. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to smuggle unregistered corpses across border.
2. They didn't have any place to put the body and it was WRONG to put it in 1st class.
3. They should have asked her daughter does she want the plane to land in India.

[Fresh V]

Wow, that would friggin' freak me out. Waking up and seeing a dead person sitting next to me.
Oh I've heard a lot worse, Like 10 years ago, i heard a story about a 93 year old senior citizen in Chile who had to go to the government to prove that he was not dead, so he could claim his retirement benefits (Much like any senior citizen here in the states would for social security), and the government officials had him wait in line for 4 hours then handed the guy a stack of paperwork to fill out in triplicate no less. This so stressed out the elderly man that he had a heart attack and died right in the governmental office.. and to think... he died trying to prove he wasn't dead...

You know Chris, your commentary here reminds me of a story I heard back about 10 years ago, and this was a true story...

The story was that a 93 year old retiree in Chile (I guess Chile has a retirement system) found out that his retirement checks had mysteriously stopped and he was outraged when he heard about this. He went to the office of the Goverment Services (sort of the equivalent of our Social Security System), and stood in line waiting to be seen for over 4 hours. Finally after the wait, he talked to a representative to see what could be done. The representative of the Government explained to him that the reason why the checks had stopped was because someone had told the service that our retiree had in fact expired. but the Representative then handed to the man a stack of papers and instructed him to fill all the forms out so that his checks could be reinstated. As he started to work on the paper work, the stress of the waiting plus the frustration of doing said paperwork, finally got to the poor fellow, and nature gave this guy a one way heart attack. where instantly he fell over face first into the pile of paperwork, dead.
You just.... told the same story twice....