Our flight to Helsinki cut northeast across British Columbia and Alberta, aiming to just clip Iceland before the longer part of the Atlantic crossing. We saw Kamloops and Red Deer pass under our track before winging over the less-populated northern ends of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Then came an urgent P.A. call for medical aid, “Is there a doctor or nurse onboard?“, accompanied by intense flight attendant activity, and quickly the beep-beep of an automated external defibrillator (AED). Many minutes of team CPR followed, in the midship galley, during which it seemed the plane might be descending and turning… but the flight map held no hope of ground-based assistance. Winnipeg and Keflavik were both hours away, and other closer strips that might support the A330 aircraft held no cardiac promise. valitettavasti hän oli kuollut

The downside of polar airliner routes is that there are large spaces of time and geography where you’re on your own.