Although tragic, it is not as rare as you may think for passengers to die on board flights, a recent death on board a Ryanair flight to Lanzarote has led to calls for the mandatory carrying of defibrillators on all commercial flights.

Ryanair have not in any way been blamed for the death, but they are one of the airlines that, at present, appear to have opted out of carrying defibrillators on their planes. In this tragic instance, another passenger who had offered to help (a consultant breast surgeon at the Royal Bolton hospital) was surprised to find that she was unable to use a defibrillator after finding that the ill passenger had no pulse.

The coroner has since echoed this surprise and a letter has been sent to both the CAA and the IAA (Ryanair is governed by these two bodies) to request that all airlines now install defibrillators on board, as well as a bag valve mask, airway adjuncts and suction equipment.

With airlines now starting to recover from some recent difficult times, it remains to be seen whether more choose to adopt these recommendations or if it is going to take some time yet before they are prepared to pay for the training of crew in using these machines, as well as the cost of installation across their fleets.