Mitch and Jenny, from Melbourne, say they were forced to sit next to a deceased passenger on board a flight to Doha.
Mitch and Jenny, from Melbourne, say they were forced to sit next to a deceased passenger on board a flight to Doha.
A Melbourne couple who say they had to sit next to a dead passenger on a Qatar Airways flight have shared their “traumatising” experience.
Mitch and Jenny appeared on A Current Affair on Monday, telling host Ally Langdon how a woman collapsed in the aisle beside them during a flight from Melbourne to Doha.
“The staff were there in no time, and I pat them on the back, they did a wonderful job trying to revive her,” Mitch told Langdon.
Though airline staff “did everything they could”, the woman could not be resuscitated. They then attempted to place the deceased woman in a wheelchair and move her to business class, but were unable to, Mitch said.
“They looked a bit frustrated and then they just looked at me and saw seats were available beside me — my wife was on the other side, we’re in a row of four by ourselves — and they just said to be, ‘Can you move over, please?’ and I just said, ‘Yes, no problem’, and then they placed the lady in the chair that I was in.”
Jenny, who held back tears throughout the interview, said the ordeal had been “traumatising” — and moved to an empty seat in a different row when another passenger offered it to her.
Mitch and Jenny told A Current Affair host Ally Langdon about their in-flight ordeal. Photo / Nine
The couple claim that though there were more empty seats available, the flight crew did not offer to move them for the rest of the trip, which lasted another four hours.
They said that when emergency staff boarded the plane after landing, they took the blankets off the deceased woman before the rest of the passengers had disembarked.
