Elderly woman "already dead" when wheeled onto flight

An elderly woman died on an Easyjet flight as it prepared to take off, but other passengers are pretty sure she was dead when her family wheeled her onto the plane. The airline insists they did not board a corpse. At the point of embarkation, she was just tired.

Five relatives helped the 89-year-old board the plane, with witnesses saying the family told airline staff she was unwell and had fallen asleep. … Passengers say the body had been pushed to the group's seats at the back of the plane in a wheelchair before the elderly woman was lifted into her seat with the help of five members of her family. … The fellow fliers claimed the group had only been able to get onto the plane because they told a member of staff at boarding who questioned the woman's apparent ill health that she was 'just tired'. One passenger even claims to have heard one member of the group telling the staff member that it was ok because they were "doctors".

A tragedy no matter what the circumstances. Anger is flowing toward the airline for allowing the situation to arise in the first place, and for failing to get the flight back in the air for 12 hours afterward.

It is not known what happened to the woman's body after it was removed from the flight, or the family members, though it is thought they were not arrested after the woman was confirmed to be deceased. The Gatwick-bound flight had been scheduled to leave at 11.15am, landing around two hours later at 1.10pm. But after the incident, passengers were faced with a delay of almost 12 hours.

Deaths from illness occur quite regularly on passenger flights, which are physically and mentally stressful even without the chaos and expense of airport travel. But my favorite story is that of a woman who survived a severe heart attack despite being 30,000 feet over the Atlantic, largely because 15 doctors were aboard on their way to a cardiology conference in Florida.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, she added: "I realised I was having a heart attack.

"I had a terrible pain in my back, across my chest and down my arm. I was sweating profusely and vomiting."

She had no idea there were so many doctors on the plane.

"I only realised when they said is there a doctor on board and all the lights above their heads began lighting up and they all came running towards me.

"I can't believe there were so many doctors – never mind cardiologists – on a plane.

"It was so frightening. I had never experienced a heart attack. But to see so many people helping me took the fright away."