- Nov 26, 2011
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Lena Pettersson was going on holiday to Tanzania last year, a 10-hour Kenya Airways flight from her native Sweden. She and her travelling companion were sitting at the back of the plane. On the far side of the same row, they noticed a man who, even before takeoff, was clearly in a bad way. "He was sweating and the crew were all around him," Pettersson says. "They were coming and going with water, and he was not looking well at all. We took off and five minutes after that he became worse, had cramps and a really big problem. They asked if there was a doctor on the plane, and six came forward."
Shortly after that, the man collapsed. Cabin crew laid him in the aisle and the doctors continued to work on him for an hour. "We were flying over Europe," Pettersson says. "They could have come down anywhere. But they just went on flying. And then suddenly one of the doctors made the sign of the cross and started to pray. And I said, 'Oh my God, this is not possible. It's not possible.' "
Is there a doctor on the plane World news The Guardian
"You have to think of the flying population as a virtual city. At any given moment, there are around 600,000 people flying. If you keep that city flying for 12 hours, some people will die."