Dead Man Flying – Passenger Demands Refund

A Kenya Airways passenger demanded a refund from the airline for flying next to a dead man for approximately 10 hours. The passenger died within a few hours of take-off and a Swedish journalist had to fight to get a partial refund from the company because a policy did not exist to deal with such a situation. Sveriges Radio journalist Lena Pettersson was on the way to Dar es salaam in Tanzania when she noticed the male passenger sitting next to her said was suffering from cramps and sweating profusely.

Pettersson alerted Kenya Airways staff about the passenger sitting next to her and they asked for help from anyone on the plane who had medical training. Help was available and although the man was given a cardiac massage, the he soon died, Nairobi Wire reports. Pettersson was forced to sit next to the dead man on the plane due to a lack of other available seating. The journalist stated it was “unpleasant” but that she is not a person “who makes a fuss,” according to excerpts from a Sweden’s Expressen Daily newspaper republished by Nairobi Wire.

The Local reports that Pettersson noticed her seat-neighbor was not “looking in top form” when he boarded the Kenya Airways flight in Amsterdam. The Sveriges Radio journalist also remarked that although the flight attendants were present, the plane still took off with what she considered a visibly ill man having “convulsions.”

Pettersson “almost decided” to forget about the incident after her vacation in Tanzania, but she changed her mind and contacted the airline about a refund. It took the journalist several months of communicating with Kenya Airways to receive a partial refund of $713 for being forced to sit next to a dead man on the plane.