As part of its internal review. Qatar Airways found crew had acted “quickly, appropriately and professionally” when they decided to put the deceased woman’s body in a seat for the last four hours of a flight from Melbourne to Venice
Qatar Airways has hit back after an Australian couple say they were “traumatised” after being forced to sit next to a dead body throughout their flight.
The Doha-based airline says it’s conducted an internal review that found the crew had acted “quickly, appropriately and professionally” when they put the body of a woman who died during the Melbourne to Doha flight next to them.
Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin were en route to Venice via Doha when a woman collapsed and died in the aisle beside their seats. They said that the cabin crew covered the woman in blankets and left her next to Mitchell for the last four hours of the flight. They had initially attempted to move the body to business class, but struggled due to the woman’s size, Mitchell said.
Instead, they asked Mitchell to move from his seat so the deceased woman could be placed there. While Jennifer was offered another seat, Mitchell claims no attempt was made to offer him another seat despite there being plenty of vacant seats.
In an earlier statement, Qatar Airways apologised for “any inconvenience or distress this may have caused” after the incident sparked concerns over the way in which airlines deal with passenger deaths.
The airline added that the crew had followed procedure and that what happened was “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,” its statement said.
“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 airline said support and compensation has been offered to the woman’s family, and to the passengers who were affected.
“We totally understand that we can’t hold the airline responsible for the poor lady’s death, but surely after that there has to be a protocol to look after the customers on board,” Jennifer told Australia’s Channel 9.
When the plane landed, Mr Ring said passengers were asked to stay put while medical staff and police came on board. Ambulance officers then started pulling blankets off the woman and he saw her face, he said.
“I can’t believe they told us to stay,” he said, adding that he thought they would have let the passengers leave the plane first before letting medical staff handle the body.