An Australian couple have spoken out about being forced to sit next to a dead passenger while on a long-haul flight.
Married couple, Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin, were onboard a Qatar Airways flight from Melbourne to Venice when a woman suddenly collapsed in the aisle after visiting the restroom.
Although crew attempted to revive her, they were unable to save her and she subsequently passed away on the plane, with Ring saying that she 'couldn't be saved'.
With hours left to go before the flight was due to touch down, there soon became a dilemma of what cabin crew were to do with her body, and where to place her until she could be transferred to the appropriate authority.
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In an interview yesterday (24 February), Ring told A Current Affair: “The staff were there in no time, and I pat them on the back, they did a wonderful job trying to revive her.
“It [happened] right beside me in the aisle, and they did everything they could, but unfortunately, the lady couldn’t be saved, which was pretty heartbreaking to watch.”
“They went to try and move her, they brought this chair down... and they put her in the chair and tried to wheel her up towards business class.
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“But she was quite a large lady, and they couldn't get her through the aisle.”
When crew spotted vacant seats on both sides of the couple, they proceeded to request that the pair move to make room and placed the body beside him in the seat he'd been in previously, covering her with blankets, Ring said.
This left the couple in an awful situation for the next four hours of the flight to Doha.
According to the couple, cabin crew didn't offer to relocate them away from the body.
Admitting that she wasn't a 'great' flyer, Colin said: “When my husband turned around and said, ‘move, move’, I was pretty shocked and I said, ‘are they going to put her there?’.”
Thankfully, a woman invited her to sit on her row so that she could put distance between herself and the body for the rest of the flight.
Ring claimed that after they arrived in Doha, they were made to stay seated with the woman's body as police and medical crews boarded, with Ring catching a glimpse of the woman’s face as they began to remove the blankets from her.
He added: “I was there and I got to see her face... it wasn't nice.”
Even after the flight, the couple claimed that they were not offered emotional support from Qatar Airways following the 'traumatising' experience, as Ring continued: “They have a duty of care towards their customers as well as their staff, 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.”
With the couple now in Venice for their holiday, Colin said that she is ‘trying to make the best of a pretty hard situation’ and ‘we're really trying to have a good time’.
Qatar Airways responded to the incident, telling news.com.au: “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.”
They added that the incident was being investigated.
LADbible Group reached out to Qatar Airways for further comment.
Topics: Travel, Australia, Health, World News
Britt Jones