An Australian couple has spoken out about their harrowing experience after being forced to sit next to a deceased passenger for hours during a long-haul flight with Qatar Airways. Mitchell Ring and his wife Jennifer Colin were traveling from Melbourne to Doha when the incident occurred.
Ring recounted that a female passenger passed away mid-flight, and due to her size, the crew struggled to move her through the aisle towards business class. After several attempts, they turned to Ring, who was sitting in economy class with an available seat beside him. He agreed to move, but instead of finding another spot, he was left seated next to the deceased passenger for around four hours.
‘I wasn’t happy about it,’ Ring told Australian network Nine News. ‘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.’
The situation became even more distressing after the plane landed in Doha. Ambulance officers and police arrived on board, and the couple was forced to wait as the deceased passenger’s body remained in the seat beside them. ‘It wasn’t nice,’ Ring said.
Colin added that she finds flying challenging under normal circumstances, and this incident made it even more unbearable. ‘There has to be a protocol that looks after the customers on board,’ she emphasized.
Despite other empty seats being available, the couple was left seated next to the corpse for hours. Ring described how crew members eventually placed the deceased passenger in his original seat after he agreed to move. ‘They said, ‘Can you move over please,’ and I just said, ‘Yes no problem,’’ he recalled.
In a statement to Australian media, Qatar Airways apologized for any inconvenience or distress caused by the incident. ‘First and foremost, our thoughts are with the family of the passenger who sadly passed away on board our flight,’ the airline said.