Passenger gets refund after having to fly with corpse

A Swedish radio reporter says that she received a partial refund of her airfare after having to sit next to a dead passenger aboard a Kenya Airways flight from Amsterdam to Africa.

Lena Pettersson, a reporter for state-run Radio Sweden, told the Expressen newspaper that after she boarded the overnight flight she noticed that a man sitting across the aisle from her did not look well. ''He was sweating and having seizures,'' she told Radio Sweden. "Air hostesses were there all along, but the plane took off anyway.''

After the man collapsed, the flight's crew put out a call for medical help and the ailing passenger was given cardiac massage but subsequently died, according the English-language The Local newspaper.

The Daily Mail of London, citing Expressen, said that the "cabin crew appeared at a loss as to what to do next, so flight attendants wrapped the corpse in a blanket as best they could and laid him out across three seats."

Pettersson says the flight crew was able to move most other passengers to seats away from the body, but they were not able to reseat her so she remained just across the aisle from the dead passenger.

After returning from Tanzania, she contacted Kenya Airways to complained and the carrier eventually reimbursed her about $713, roughly half the cost of her round-trip fare.