An Australian couple have spoken of the “traumatic” moment the body of a dead passenger was placed next to them on a Qatar Airways flight.
Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin, who were travelling to Venice for a dream holiday, told Australia’s Channel 9 a woman died in the aisle beside them during the flight from Melbourne to Doha.
The couple say cabin crew sat her corpse, which was covered in blankets, next to Mr Ring for the remaining four hours of the flight and did not offer to move him, despite there being empty seats.
Qatar Airways said it apologised for “any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused”, adding that it was in the process of contacting passengers.
Mr Ring said staff responded “in no time” when the woman collapsed, but that “unfortunately the lady couldn’t be saved, which was pretty heart-breaking to watch,” he told the A Current Affair programme.
Cabin crew tried and failed to move her body away towards business class, he explained.
“They tried to wheel her up towards business class, but she was quite a large lady and they couldn’t get her through the aisle.
“They looked a bit frustrated, then they just looked at me and saw seats were available beside me – my wife was on the other side, we were in a row of four.
“They said, ‘can you move over please?’ and I just said, ‘yes no problem’.
“Then they placed the lady in the chair I was in.”
Ms Colin said she was shocked when her husband said they were being asked to move up: “I said, ‘are they going to put her there?'”
While Ms Colin was able to move to an empty seat nearby, Mr Ring said he was not given the option to do so by cabin crew – even though there were vacant seats.
When the plane landed four hours later, he said passengers were asked to stay put while medical staff and police came on board.
“Ambulance officers started pulling the blankets off the lady,” Mr Ring said.
“I got to see her face.
“I can’t believe they told us to stay.”
The pair said they had not been contacted nor offered any support by Qatar Airways or Qantas, the airline through which they booked the flight.
“They have a duty of care towards their customers as well as their staff,” Mr Ring said.
“We should be contacted to make sure, do you need some support, do you need some counselling?
“I don’t really know how I feel and would like to speak to somebody to make sure I’m alright.”
Ms Colin called the experience “traumatic” and said: “We totally understand that we can’t hold the airline responsible for the poor lady’s death, but there has to be a protocol to look after the customers on board.”
In a statement, Qatar Airways said: “First and foremost our thoughts are with the family of the passenger who sadly passed away on board our flight.
“We apologise for any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused, and are in the process of contacting passengers in line with our policies and procedures.”
A Qantas spokesperson said: “The process for handling incidents onboard an aircraft like this is managed by the operating airline, which in this case is Qatar Airways.”
