What happens when someone dies on a plane or a cruise ship? what do they do with the body?

Question

What happens when someone dies on a plane or a cruise ship? what do they do with the body?

Answer 1

Actually, shipsahoy isnt quite right...

We DO have a morgue on cruise ships - at least every ship ive worked on has had one, and they can hold 3 to 4 people.

In the event of someone passing away we will normally disembark the body at the next port with the deceased's family.

However, sometimes, especially if it is at the end of the cruise, and the itermediate ports have little or no infrastructure (ie, in the middle of nowhere) we will keep them onboard until the turn around port (end of cruise)

Amazingly we have had alot of people pass away onboard and the family travelling with the deceased have asked us to make arrangements to get the body back to the states, but they have stayed on to enjoy the rest of the cruise!!

Because of all the logistics and paperwork involved if we even begin to suspect someone might 'croak' onboard our ship we will do everything in our power to get them off and in proper medical care ashore as soon as possible.

As an aside, in some of the ships there is a poor crewmember delagated to go to the morgue every 4 hours and turn the body over, to stop ummm....dont know the medical term, but to stop all the blood draining to the bottom of the body.... nice eh? :)

Answer 2

i'm going to assume that the body is dropped off at the next first stop.

Answer 3

well im not exactly sure but they most likely land the plane at the closest airport and have the body transported to a hospital. and a cruise ship would dock at the next available station and a parametic team would transport the body off. but if ur asking what people do in the air or out at sea when a person dies... well run around aimlessly and scream bloody murder; at least thats what i would do!

Answer 4

On a plane - move the body out of the way for safety reasons and schedule an emergency landing in the nearest airport and once on the ground offload it and contact family members, if they're not in that city then ship the body to where the family resides.

I believe the same process would occur on a cruise ship, in regards to burying the body with the family present.

Answer 5

This happened on our cruise to the Bahamas.  Someone died of a heart attack.  They put the body in the freezer until we docked.  An ambulance took the body away.  A friend of ours died while on a sailboat in the Bahamas.  It took lots of paperwork to get the body back to the US.

Answer 6

On a cruiseship, a body is kept in the Infirmary (there is not a morgue as such on any cruiseships).

The body is then considered cargo (sad hey) and has to clear customs. They will usually attempt to bring the body back to the home port if it's the deceased's country of citizenship. If this is not the case (e.g. An American on a European Cruise), the body will be taken off the ship in the next port that accepts the cargo. Most countries will.

Travel insurance will cover the cost of burial in the port of debarkation but not to transfer the body back to the home country. This can cost heaps.

On a plane, a body is kept in a crew bed and disembarked upon arrival.

Answer 7

Cruise ships have a small morgue where they can store the body