Delta to carry Narcan on planes after passenger ‘carried out in body bag’ following overdose

Experts tell airlines to practice 'harm reduction' by carrying the drug meant to reverse overdoses on each flight

Delta Air Lines has announced it will begin carrying a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses on every plane after a passenger reportedly died on a flight earlier this month.

The announcement arrived after Lynne Lyman, a former director for the Drug Policy Alliance in California, shared on Twitter that another passenger on her flight from Boston to Los Angeles overdosed in the bathroom.

“A man just #overdosed on my @Delta flight,” she wrote, adding, “needle in arm he passed out in bathroom.”

“The plane didn’t have a #NarcanKit,” she continued, referring to the fatal overdose-prevention drug Narcan. “The paramedics took 10 minutes to arrive. They just carried him out in a body bag.”

Narcan is a nasal spray that has been proven to reverse opioid overdoses and save lives when the drug is quickly administered to a patient.

Ms Lyman urged the airline to “practice #harmreduction” by carrying a kit containing Narcan on every flight. By Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for Delta said the company was planning on doing just that.

“I can’t speak to details of the event specifically due to passenger privacy rules,” the spokesperson said in an interview with Fox News. “That said, Delta earlier this year made the decision to improve our on board emergency medical kits by adding Narcan.”

Medical kits on Delta flights would begin being processed with Narcan kits beginning in the fall, the spokesperson added.

Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants, celebrated the announcement by Delta in a statement that described flight attendants as “aviation’s first responders.”

“We need the proper tools to respond and save lives,” she added. “In the air there are no options.”

Her organisation has previously called on the Federal Aviation Administration to require Narcan kits be made available on all passenger planes earlier this year.