Passengers 'forced to wait on plane with dead body for hours' at Queensland airport
Passengers have reportedly had to wait two hours with a dead body on board an aircraft in Queensland after a man died on an Air New Zealand international flight.
A Queensland Police spokeswoman told Yahoo7 officers attended Cairns Airport on Monday about 2.50am.
“The plane was coming from Hong Kong and was headed to Auckland but had to be diverted to Cairns,” she said.
“Police responded to reports a 66-year-old man was found deceased on the aircraft. A report is now being prepared for the coroner.”
The man’s cause of death is unknown.
An aviation source told the Cairns Post due to the fact the airport was closed there was difficulty removing the body.
The source added a “small set of stairs” was used to reach the plane’s door but since it was too short paramedics had to climb in.
It also reportedly took two hours for emergency services to get access in what was described as a “comedy of errors”.
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman told Yahoo7 in a statement flight NZ80 from Hong Kong to Auckland had to be diverted to Cairns when a passenger became unwell. It arrived in Auckland two hours after its scheduled arrival time.
“As you’ll appreciate, due to privacy reasons, we’re unable to share further details about the passenger,” she said.
She added given the aircraft’s arrival into Cairns wasn’t scheduled, and in the early hours of the morning, there was “limited ground support available which meant normal airbridge access was not available and a set of temporary stairs was used to access the aircraft”.
“This is normal procedure when an aircraft is parked at a remote gate,” she said.
“The aircraft was on the ground for a total of two hours – this included emergency services accessing the aircraft, ground staff completing refuelling, the pilots completing their pre-flight walk around and associated checks, and the tug being connected to push the aircraft back to begin the taxi.”
Cairns Airport would not comment on the matter.
