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University students in the Netherlands have worked with KLM employees to design an app that would allow flight attendants to identify passengers who are feeling anxious or ill.

The Flightbeat app would monitor the physical and mental well-being of passengers through heart rate sensors built into their seats, said Flaminia Del Conte, who worked on the project with four others.

She told MailOnline Travel that the app is still a concept, but the sensor technology exists and is being looked at by at least one major car manufacturer.

Students from Delft University of Technology designed an app that would identify anxious or ill passengers

The group of students worked with KLM flight attendants in the project commissioned by Zodiac Aerospace

Ms Del Conte, who graduated in January and now works for a London-based service design company, said: 'This 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 passenger if they see something is not going well.

'This helps them to go and check personally the situation to avoid an emergency landing procedure, which is expensive.'

The students developed a prototype to test the user experience, but did not use built-in sensors in seats

Under the students' concept the sensors would identify ill or scared passengers and alert cabin crew 

The iPad app displays a plane's seat map and shows alerts when a passenger is in distress

She worked on the project with fellow students Mirthe Monninkhof, Quirine van Walt Meijer, Alexander Vervoort and Isbrand Karman while participating in a strategic product design master's programme at Delft University of Technology.

She said the project was commissioned by Zodiac Aerospace and the team interviewed KLM flight attendants.

As of right now the app is just a concept that would still need to be developed and certified if Zodiac Aerospace, KLM or any other company decided to pursue it. Privacy concerns would be an obvious hurdle going forward.

Flight attendants would be able to monitor passengers' emotions over the course of a flight

The technology for heart rate sensors in aircraft seats would work like traditional electrocardiography

Ms Del Conte said the students developed a prototype to test the user experience, but did not work with any built-in sensors.

She said the technology for heart rate sensors in aircraft seats would work like traditional electrocardiography, which analyses the electrical activity of the heart.

Ms Del Conte said she believes a future trend for airlines will be monitoring and control using technology, and that the app or a similar one will eventually be in use in the years to come.