2017-08-15
Dying in front of me up in the air
It was the second time i experienced someone dying. The first time, a person jumped from the Cologne cathedral. Years ago, in late 2014, i could feel and hear the bang it made when the body smashed into the ground. Now, in mid 2017, a passenger of my flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt got some critical medical condition. My first impression of him i got was while we were filling the bin with our carry-on baggage. He was a solo traveller and already a bit old. He seemed to be nice and patient. I think he even smiled, because i performed some serious Tetris skills to get our stuff into the bin over the seats. He was definitely happy that i got him enough space for his bag.
After this, we ate our first meal of the 12 hours flight. And at some point, i saw his head and left arm hanging over into the aisle from the seat in front of me. I thought he was just really tired. The flight attendant, who was checking him out visually, thought this too. Because our plane started after midnight. But hours later, i came back from the toilet and saw a lot of action around me. I realized, he is probably dead, because he was for a while like that.
At the check-in counter in the airport, i got a seat at the end of the plane, next to my mother. They brought the body behind us, where enough space was available, right in front of the toilet and next to the kitchen. I could experience the whole thing, how they tried to get him back alive. But only his beer belly was still moving. And after they gave up, we got new seats, while we were still in the air, to make room for the professionals on the ground later. In the end, i got to fly for at least six hours with a dead person, literally close to heaven.