Kenya Airways forces woman to sit next to corpse on 10-hr flight

Kenya Airways partially reimbursed a Swedish woman after she was forced to sit through a 10-hour flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, next to a passenger who died during the flight.

According to the Swedish website The Expressen, Lena Pettersson, a reporter for Radio Sweden, was traveling with a friend. She boarded a Dar es Salaam-bound Kenya Airways flight during a stopover at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. The Local reports there was a fellow passenger on the flight in his 30s who appeared very ill. The flight attendants were aware of the situation but they allowed the plane to take off with the man on board. Petterson told Radio Sweden: "He was sweating and having seizures. Air hostesses were there all along, but the plane took off anyway." After the plane took off, flight attendants put out a call to passengers asking whether there was any one aboard with any medical experience who might be able to help. Some of the passengers responded and with the help of the cabin crew, they began performing a cardiac massage on the man. But soon the man died. NY Daily News reports Pettersson said the man died a few hours into the overnight flight, despite efforts to revive him. While flight attendants moved other people who were seated next to the dead man, they could not find an alternative seat for Pettersson. Pettersson, who was traveling to Tanzania on vacation, was forced to sit across the aisle from the corpse for the rest of the 10-hr trip. She said: "I asked to move, but they said there were no other places." She explained that the cabin crew appeared confused and did not know what to do, but the flight attendants wrapped up the corpse in a blanket and laid it across three seats. According to Pettersson, the deceased man was a very tall man. Fox News Insider reports his legs were sticking out across the narrow aisle very close to where she was sitting. Daily Mail reports she told Radio Sweden: "Of course it was unpleasant, but I am not a person who makes a fuss." Pettersson said that after the trip, she lodged a complaint with Kenya Airways and demanded compensation. After a few months of email communication with the Kenya Airways, she received $713, roughly half her ticket price and an apology. She said: "I am happy with it. I think it was a reasonable substitute."