Qatar Airways Responds To Australian Couple’s Claim Of Being Forced To Sit Next To Dead Body On Long-Haul Flight (File Image) | X/Qatar Airways
Melbourne: Qatar Airways on Friday reacted to the claims made by an Australian couple that they were forced to sit next to a dead body on a long-haul flight from Melbourne to Venice. The airline said that its crew “acted quickly”, “appropriately” and “professionally”. Qatar Airways in a statement to BBC dismissed the couple’s allegations. It stated that during an internal review, it was found that its crew handled the woman’s death “in line with the training and industry standard practice.”
Qatar Airways said that a crew member was sitting next to the dead body and passengers’ seats were changed. “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,” Qatar Airways told BBC.
“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 statement added.
The airline issued the statement days after the Australian couple shared their experience of their flight journey from Melbourne to Venice to Channel Nine. They alleged that they were forced to sit next to the dead body of a fellow passenger and the crew was not supportive. The couple recalled that they were forced to sit beside a dead woman for hours as she died during the long-haul Qatar Airways flight.
As per the couple, after going to the toilet, the woman collapsed in the aisle. However, she could not be revived. After that Mitchell Ring and his wife Jennifer Colin had to spend the entire journey with the dead body and the crew decided to put the woman’s body in the row of the couple for the remaining four hours of the journey.
The couple told the website that they were traumatised by the incident. “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,” Ring told Australian website Current Affair.
“They looked a bit frustrated, then they just looked at me and saw seats were available beside me, my wife was on the other side, we were in a row of four,” he added. The couple alleged that the cabin crew did not offer them different seats to move to even though there were several spare seats available on the flight. Ring further claimed that the cabin crew asked him to stay seated.
