A couple on a long-haul flight were horrified when the woman next to them died suddenly – and they were forced to sit next to her corpse for the rest of the journey.
Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin were flying from Melbourne, Australia to their dream holiday in Venice, Italy, when the woman collapsed in the aisle shortly after going to the toilet.
The Qatar Airways cabin crew tried their best to save her, but she couldn’t be revived.
But they were further traumatised after being forced to sit next to the corpse for the remaining four hours of their flight transfer in Doha – and the couple say nobody from the airline has contacted them after their ordeal.
For Jennifer, a nervous flyer, the entire ordeal was horrifying, the couple told 9 Now – and it was another passenger who invited Jennifer to sit with her after cabin staff failed to offer to relocate them further away from the body, they claim.
Mitchell explained: ‘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.
‘But she was quite a large lady, and they couldn’t get her through the aisle.’
Cabin crew wrapped the body in blankets and left her on a seat, asking Mitchell and Jennifer to move along the row to make space.
Mitchell said the crew took the blankets off the body to inspect it while they were still sat nearby, meaning he saw the dead woman’s face.
Then, the couple were forced to wait after the plane arrived in Doha as police and paramedics boarded.
‘I can’t believe they told us to stay… it wasn’t nice,’ he said.
‘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.’
The entire ordeal has soured what was the couple’s dream holiday to Italy.
‘When my husband turned around and said, “move, move”, I was pretty shocked and I said, “are they going to put her there?”,’ Jennifer said.
‘I’m trying to make the best of a pretty hard situation, but, you know, we’re on holidays so we’re really trying to have a good time.’
Qatar Airways and Qantas, which the couple used to book their flights, have since said they are looking into the incident.
‘Ms Colin booked tickets through Qantas and travelled with Qatar Airways, a fellow Oneworld Alliance carrier,’ 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.’
A Qatar Airways spokesperson said: ‘First and foremost our thoughts are with the family of the passenger who sadly passed away on board our flight.
Source : https://metro.co.uk/2025/02/25/couple-forced-sit-next-dead-body-a-plane-woman-dies-flight-22620239/
