An Australian couple says they are “traumatized” after being forced to sit next to the body of a passenger who died midway through their Qatar Airways flight.
Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin were travelling from Melbourne, Australia to Venice, Italy, when a woman collapsed in the aisle and could not be revived.
“It right beside me in the aisle, and did everything they could, but unfortunately, the lady couldn’t be saved, which was pretty heartbreaking to watch,” Ring told the host of Australian news outlet A Current Affair.
Ring said airline staff brought in a wheelchair and attempted to move the deceased passenger to business class.
“She was quite a large lady, and they couldn’t get her through the aisle,” he added.
Ring said that the “staff were there in no time” and that they did “a wonderful job trying to revive her.”
“They looked a bit frustrated and then they just looked at me and saw seats were available beside me — my wife was on the other side, we’re in a row of four by ourselves — and they just said to me, ‘Can you move over, please?’ and I just said, ‘Yes, no problem,’ and then they placed the lady in the chair that I was in,” he said.
According to the couple, flight staff told them they must remain in their seats next to the body for the remaining four hours of the flight. They added that the crew took the blankets off the body to inspect it while the couple sat nearby.
“There were a few spare seats I could see around us. I can’t believe they told us to stay … it wasn’t nice,” Ring said, speaking from the couple’s vacation in Venice.
Colin, on the verge of tears during the interview, called the whole experience “traumatizing” and said she moved herself to a different seat when a passenger in another row offered her the empty seat beside them.
Ring and Colin said that they have not received any duty of care and haven’t been offered counselling after the flight.
“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,” Ring told the outlet. “I don’t really know how I feel and would like to speak to somebody to make sure I’m all right.”
Colin said that they are currently “trying to make the best of a pretty hard situation” because they are on vacation in Venice.
“We’re really trying to have a good time,” she added.
The couple booked their flight through the Australian airline Qantas and travelled with Qatar Airways.
In a statement to multiple outlets, a spokesperson for Qantas said, “The process for handling incidents onboard an aircraft like this is managed by the operating airline, which in this case is Qatar Airways.”
In a statement to Global News, a representative for Qatar Airways said, “At Qatar Airways we deeply sympathise with all those involved in this sad situation, and our thoughts remain with the family members of the passenger who passed away on board our flight.”
“It is an unfortunate reality that unexpected deaths do sometimes occur on board aircraft across the aviation industry and our crew are highly trained to deal with these situations with as much respect and dignity as possible,” the spokesperson said. “After an internal review, it is clear that Qatar Airways cabin crew acted quickly, appropriately and professionally at all times in line with training and industry standard practice.”
“Passengers were accommodated to other seats, and a crew member was sitting at all times with the deceased passenger for the duration of the flight until landing in Doha. We have been in direct contact with the family of the deceased as well as other passengers who were directly affected by this difficult situation and have offered emotional support and compensation,” the spokesperson added.
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