What’s That Smell???

In the continuing saga of  “You found what WHERE?”

Let’s revisit the coat closets on the L1011 where we left off last time.

Oh yes, the closets should have had monitors.

On another flight from the US to San Juan the mid coat closet was the center of attention. This closet was an engineering marvel. As folks would enter the boarding door, they could hang garment bags on racks that would recede back and with a flick of the switch rise up into the ceiling and you could close a door over them securely. It was pretty great. Of course the boarding process could get chaotic, what with welcoming over 250 of your closest friends, hanging bags, monitoring for chickens and answering questions in a few languages, so things could slip by.

Across from the cloistered closet were the 2 lifts (elevators to the lower galley of the aircraft) where all of the cabin supplies traveled back and forth during the flight. That was the hub of the activity on an L-1011. All crew came and went through there like a transfer station in a busy subway system.

About an hour into the flight, finally someone had to say it: “What is that SMELL?” We all agreed, kept working and the smell kept growing. We finally paused and looked for it, stifling gags. We narrowed it down to the center coat closet.

We narrowed it down to one bag.

We removed the unwieldy bag and sent it to the galley for the flight attendant working down there to stow. One flight attendant always remained in the lower galley during flight and cooked the meals, loaded them in the carts, stocked and sent the beverage carts upstairs and kept extra supplies on the lift for quick pickup. It was a pivotal job that kept the whole operation running smoothly. She could send the bag up at the end of the flight for pickup and keep it out of our way.

SHE didn’t want it. SHE decided to open it and let out a scream you could hear without the interphone system engaged. Before we could call down she was on her way up. It turns out a very old, very dead woman was in the bag. Well, now that was awkward. We collected ourselves and then calmly decided to speak with the owner of the garment bag.

We paged for the name on the bag which was a very common local name, the equivalent of paging “Mr. Smith” in the US.

Over 10 call lights lit up.

We had to approach each one delicately and inquire if they had hung a garment bag in the center closet. Finally a lovely gentleman nods, “Oh si, si!” When we asked if he was aware that he had a body in the bag, he explained that it was his Mother. Sadly, he could not afford to ship her and was taking her home to bury her. I wanted to cry. We hugged him and offered our condolences. We respectfully made him (and his Mother) as comfortable as possible for the rest of the flight. This did not become a published service offered by the airline.

It was 1980ish. CNN did not meet the flight, nor the police.

We took a delay.