A couple of friends shared a story with me tonight, the gist of which was last week they flew out to New Orleans and a woman passed away on the plane they were on, mid-flight.
I fly quite a bit, and I had never heard of such a thing occurring, but according to what they were told in the aftermath, which included having to stay onboard the airplane after it landed in order for the police and medical personnel to board and perform a thorough investigation of the death to determine if foul play was involved and having to wait for the airport coroner to board and take away the deceased, it happens between 70 to 80 times a year on U.S. domestic flights.
That took me seriously aback. Of course I got on the good ol' internet to do a little fact checking, and sure enough that stat was legit.
At first glance that seemed like a high number, but after a bit more reading pertaining to modes of transport and likelihood of death while in transit, I realized that when the incredible amount of people who travel by airplane every day is taken into account (2.9 million. Every single day. That's the population of Kansas and Mississippi combined) it is incredibly small.
How small? About 1 in every 40,000 flights will experience an inflight death of a passenger.
So now I am not so astonished by the fact that someone died on a flight a couple of friends of mine were on as I am astonished by the fact that a couple of my friends were on a flight on which a fellow passenger passed away.
BTW, most likely cause of death - cardiac arrest. Most likely victim, male, mid-50's.
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