What happens to the body when your flight is delayed?

Your flight has been delayed and it looks like it will be by three hours or more. You begin to hate the world around you as the noise of your surroundings becomes unbearable. But what actually happens to the body when we find out that our flights have been delayed or cancelled?

Luckily for us, we have an in-house medical expert, DR. Dave, who conducted a survey of delayed passengers and ran a few tests. He can now answer those nagging questions about what happens to the body when a flight is delayed or cancelled.

As the number of flight delays increases, so do the dangers that they bring with them. We ask DR. Dave to explain some of the side effects of having a flight delayed by three or more hours.

There are quite a few troublesome side effects, so we put together this handy infographic to demonstrate what happens when your flights are delayed or cancelled.

An info graphic demonstrating what happens to the body in the event of a flight delay

Blood pressure will rise quicker than an aircraft

The Doc was quick to highlight that when passengers had their blood pressure tested in the immediate aftermath of discovering that a flight had been delayed by three or more hours, it rose, in some cases by 100%.

Anxiety kicks in

Passengers become immediately anxious on hearing of a flight delay. The percentage of passengers surveyed that suffered from bouts of anxiety due to a delay was 99. The single percent that did not, did not suffer due to taking a prescribed sedative because of a fear of flying. That passenger in particular sat slumped in a chair drooling.

Plug those ears

If you have a flight delayed by three or more hours then you can expect that the children that were due to travel on the same flight will get louder and louder. The Doc, using two separate departure gates, measured the noise levels of children who were delayed and those that were not. The findings were shocking. A child's decibel level will rise to almost deafening levels when confronted by a flight delay of three or more hours.

Smoking

Out of those surveyed, 46% were active smokers, 44% of smokers reported an increase of more than double they would usually smoke. From the non-smokers, 35% began to smoke at some point during the duration of their delay or cancellation.

Drink until you are too drunk

A high number of passengers, on finding out they had been delayed, began to drink to excess. The Doc suspects this is to quell the disappointment of the delay or cancellation. The Doc was quick to warn, that an increasing number of passengers become so drunk, that, when a flight is available, they are often denied boarding.

Safer to fly alone

Many people think that they will only be affected by a flight delay at the time it is taking place. This is not the case according to the Doc. He did his own bit of homework on what happens to couples after they have been delayed. You will be astounded by his findings. Married couples that have been delayed by three or more hours have a 144% higher chance of getting divorced. Shocking.

On the upside

On the upside, of those surveyed, all of them made a claim for compensation with flight-delayed.co.uk and were entitled to compensation.

(DR.Dave is not a real Doctor and the survey was fictitious)

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