A Swedish radio broadcaster has been reimbursed by Kenya Airlines for an overnight flight on which she sat next to a dead man.
Lena Patterson, who works for Sveriges Radio in Sweden, was en route to Dar es-Salaam from Amsterdam for vacation with a friend in Tanzania when the incident occurred, The Expressen reports.
As the duo boarded the plane, Pettersson noted seeing a man in his 30s who did not look well. "He was sweating and had cramp," she said, adding that despite flight attendants being aware of the situation, the flight took off anyway, according to The Local.
It wasn't until the plane was airborne that flight attendants asked for doctors on board. The unidentified man was given a "cardiac massage," The Expressen reports, but died a few hours later, while the plane was still airborne. The man's body was covered with a blanket and placed along three seats on the plane, across the aisle from Pettersson, until the plane landed hours later.
Once back from vacation, Pettersson decided to seek reimbursement from the airline. After months of email exchanges, she was finally reimbursed roughly $713, about half the cost of her ticket.
"This feels much better. It is reasonable," she told a local station, according to The Local. According to The Expressen, she added, in a phrase that seems to have a poor translation into English, "Of course it was unpleasant, but I'm not the kind of person who hunt me up."
Deaths on flights aren't all that uncommon. Last May, a man died on an American Airlines flight bound for Miami. In September, Jetstar passengers on an 11-hour Singapore to Auckland flight were offered $100 travel vouchers after a man choked on an in-flight meal and died. His body was moved to the crew area of the plane. Just this week, a woman became unresponsive on a Delta flight, which was diverted to get her care; it was unclear if the woman died on the flight or en route to the hospital.