The App That Could Monitor the Health of Flight Passengers

An in-flight app which can detect when the passengers are ill or afraid may be well on its way. A prototype has been designed by students at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, who worked with Zodiac Aerospace and flight attendants from KLM on the invention.

The idea is that the app would monitor the physical and mental wellbeing of passengers through heart rate sensors built into their seats. Meanwhile, the flight attendants would be able to see from a seat plan on their iPad screens whether any passengers are identified by the sensors as unwell or distressed.

“The seats are monitored by the cabin crew with the app on which they can log in, have an overview of the different status of the passengers, and dive into each of the passengers if they see something is not going well,” says Flaminia Del Conte, who worked on the project before graduating in January, and is now working for a London-based service design company. “This helps them to go and check personally the situation to avoid an emergency landing procedure, which is expensive.”

The app is currently just a concept, but the technology it requires already exists. For it to become available, it still needs to be fully developed beyond the prototype stage, and certified if any flight company wants to use it. There are also hurdles to overcome, such as privacy issues. Ms Del Conte, however, has expressed confidence that such technology will be a future trend for airlines, and that the app will eventually be in use.