[Capt. Fantastic]

Any aviator can tell you about the perils of "dead weight."

Yes, well, from the pilot's standpoint he had two choices:

(1) Divert and cost his passengers a lot of time, his company a tremendous amount of money, plus the (presumed) nightmare of unloading a body in another country. Where would the deceased be kept? Who would pay? Were the family members present willing to hand over a credit card? The police would want to investigate and might very well impound the aircraft for the duration.

(2) Continue the flight.

Any captain would choose #2. Now the issue is minimal disruption to the passengers. Despite what you might suspect airlines know on which side their bread is buttered: customer service. It would be great to have special spaces on airliners to stow deceased passengers respectfully. (Another minefield. Ask a mortician about how much time and effort he spends on religious considerations.)

But these "spaces" would be just that, dead space when not in use. (I am studiously avoiding double entendres here.) IOW wasted money and increased ticket prices. So trade-offs have to be made.

Perhaps the cabin crew could have handled things better, perhaps not. For sure they do not get much practice. But consider that a 747 holds hundreds of people few of whom relish the thought of sharing their space with the recently-departed, malodorous or not.

Sometimes there are no good choices. But would anyone want to return to the days of land and sea-based travel? In those cases a deceased would be disposed of promptly.