Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin were on a long-haul flight when a fellow passenger collapsed in the aisle after going to the toilet and was unable to be revived by cabin crew
An Australian couple has emotionally recounted their distressing experience of being seated beside a deceased woman for several hours during a long-haul flight. Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin were on board a Qatar Airways flight from Melbourne to Venice when a woman suddenly collapsed in the aisle after using the restroom.
Despite the cabin crew’s efforts, the woman tragically could not be revived. The crew, noticing vacant seats beside the couple, requested that they move over to make room for the deceased woman. Mr Ring told A Current Affair: “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.”
As a result, the deceased woman was placed beside Mr Ring, covered in blankets for the remaining four hours of the flight to Doha. The experience was particularly traumatic for Ms Colin, who is already a nervous flyer.
“When my husband turned around and said, ‘move, move’, I was pretty shocked and I said, ‘are they going to put her there?'” she revealed. Fortunately, a compassionate passenger with an extra seat in another row invited Ms Colin to sit with her after the couple claimed that the cabin crew had failed to offer them an alternative seat away from the body.
Their ordeal did not end upon landing in Doha, as the pair were required to remain on board while the authorities and medical personnel attended to the situation. Mr Ring recounted how the crew began to uncover and examine the body while he and his wife were still seated nearby, leading him to see the woman’s face.
“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 couple’s feelings about their dream holiday in Venice are now mixed. Ms Colin shared: “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 has since indicated that it is investigating the incident.
The couple booked the flight through Qantas, which said it would also reach out. A spokesperson for Qantas said: “Ms Colin booked tickets through Qantas and travelled with Qatar Airways, a fellow Oneworld Alliance carrier. The process for handling incidents onboard an aircraft like this is managed by the operating airline, which in this case is Qatar Airways.”