Leading Off
1. American Airlines says the details of how a passenger died on one of its flights were reported incorrectly. The airlines says the passenger was administered oxygen (the tanks were working), and medical professionals on the flight determined she was not in cardiac arrest, therefore she was not shocked with the (working) defibrillator.
2. The Dell Foundation is giving DISD $5 million dollars to create a database that will house student information and make it easier for administrators, teachers, and parents to retrieve and study data related to student and school performance. I’d like to see an examination of how such a program can be used to improve a large school district, perhaps comparing it to school districts with similar systems. I’ll just tune in tonight to my local TV stations and I’m sure such a report will show up.
3. We’ve already passed the number of early voters we had during the 1996 and 2000 primaries, and we have a week left. The reason? We’re excited. By Huckabee. What else could it be?
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We’re excited. By Huckabee. What else could it be?
Why is could be this guy http://www.myspace.com/hurleyforpresident
RE: # 1 –regardless of what happened on the plane, I am astounded that the pilot decided to go on to New York with the dead body on the floor of the First Class cabin covered in a blanket. I bet it made serving dinner a problem.
# 1 Sounds like an asthma attack, given the doctor on board chose manual push of O2, and presence of a pulse.
Lee,
Are you calling for an emergency landing? I’m not making light of somebody dying, but once she was dead there was no more emergency. It’s not like she was going to start smelling or anything. Unfortunate incident but I don’t think it’s cause to divert the plane to somewhere else. It seems that lady already had her ticket punched to her final destination.
I would not want to fly for two more hours or so with a dead body on the floor. In consideration of the other passengers, I think that they should have landed in Miami. My guess is that all but the most selfcentered on the flight would have understood. Granted there are those who would have complained about the delay.
It sounds as if - from the story - standard operating procedure is, if a passenger dies on a plane, the passenger is covered and moved to first class.
This actually makes sense. It’s not usual for someone to die on a plane. It could very well be that everything needs to stay somewhat together in case authorities need to poke around, you know?
Lee of course makes sense. It is absurd and arguably disrespectful to fly on with the body of a passenger that died a protracted death en route. Plus, I would hardly feel that being in first class was an ‘upgrade’ when there is dead person on the floor. But hey… a lot of the people I have typically seen in first class appeared to be cadaverous.
#2 sounds like Big Brother. Isn’t it sad that so many people don’t trust anyone/anything that wants out information??
I thought the Dells lived in Austin, no? Are they giving other school districts $$$, I wonder. IJS
I keep seeing these early voting polls of how there are already 40,000 Democrat ballots sent in compared to around 13,000 ballots in for the primary election. As if to say, ‘It really looks like Dallas has swung completely Democrat and the Republicans are totally screwed come November.’
But does the media and others really realize this in only a PRIMARY and that the Republican guy has by all purposes, won the nomination for his party and because of that, most republicans are not even going to vote in the primary? I mean I know there are some heated more local primary elections and all but nothing like the Hillary/Obama contest on the Demo side. As a registered Republican, I am not voting in this primary, but most certainly will come November.
Diverting the plane to Miami after the passenger was deceased actually would have created difficult issues for the family of the deceased. The medical examiner of Miami would have then taken control of the body, to be released at an undetermined time. The family also would have had to make arrangements for the deceased to be transported from Miami back to New York City. In the short run, passengers would have been inconvenienced by a diversion to Miami, and in the long run, the family would have faced more hardship with an already traumatic situation.
It is standard operating procedure when there is a death aboard a flight to move the deceased to an area of the cabin where it can be isolated to some extent and covered. That is sometimes at the rear of the cabin, but in this instance, with a very full flight, the best option was the bulkhead row at the front of first class. Passengers were arranged to be farther from the deceased and our customer relations department will be (or likely already has been) in contact with the affected first class passengers.
Tim Wagner
Spokesman
American Airlines
One of the problems with just landing somewhere is what happens to the body. You now have a corpse in a city where you know there is no one who can claim it. Eventually that body is going to have to be transported somewhere, either to where it came from or to where it was going. If you keep the body on the plane, you have a 50-50 chance of getting the body to the city where it’s final resting place is going to be. Finely, who wants to be the AA worker that not only has to tell a family that their loved one is dead, but that they’ll need to fly to Miami to claim the body from the Dade County coroner?
I wonder, though, what Marty (and/or Mrs.) Cortland would have to say about dead bodies along with the unwashed masses in first class.
Marty and spouse want to be wheels up on a private jet, where they simply throw the bodies overboard in keeping with a long tradition of piracy… Hey, and Marty, before you go off half cocked with some snarky response…I changed 6 lightbulbs all by myself on Sunday. Please send me a check.
If I died on a plane, I wouldn’t want them to reroute just to dump my body…disrespectful…come on I’m already dead. It’s not like they’re using it as a prop for a stand up routine.
If I die on a plane, I want they should jettison my corpse over Disneyland!
Thank you to W. T. White alumnus Susan Dell for her many gifts to public education and, no, she has not singled out her alma mater. The foundation is very judicious in its gifts.
If anyone needs this kind of database, it IS a large urban school district with high student mobility. There may be an average of 158,000 kids but the number coming in and out is much larger. Stop in on any high school the soon after report cards have been mailed home and you’ll be astounded by the stack of returned mail. That’s just an example of basic record keeping issues. So imagine how difficult it is to keep up with the highly mobile kid’s academic record.
There is no way this type of project could be effectively accomplished without an external funding and consulting source…..and avoid the meddling of investigative reporters and other barking dogs.
What Tim W. said. Diverting the aircraft to Miami would have created needless problems and generated significant additional expense for the family of the deceased.
AA did the decent thing. If I die mid-flight, at least let me complete my final plane trip in style. The only thing that would hve topped it off is if the in-flight movie was “Weekend at Bernie’s . . . II.” [insert "Rock Me" drop].
*sticks tongue firmly in cheek* Clearly, to avoid offending the delicate sensibilities of passengers like Lee and Rawlins, AA should have diverted the flight to Miami, then quickly put the deceased in the cargo area of the plane before continuing to New York.
Tim W., you should totally get right on that.