Couple watched a passenger die mid-flight at 30,000 feet. Then the crew put the corpse beside them for hours and told them to stay put
A long-haul flight can become uncomfortable for reasons no passenger can control. A medical emergency is one of them. Finding yourself stuck beside the aftermath for hours is something else entirely.
There is only so much space inside an aircraft when something goes seriously wrong. Even a death in the middle of a flight leaves the crew with difficult decisions to make. For the passengers sitting nearby, however, those decisions can turn an already upsetting journey into something much harder to forget.
Australian couple Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin experienced that firsthand. According to The Guardian, a woman died during their 14-hour Qatar Airways flight from Melbourne to Doha. What happened afterward left the couple questioning how the situation was handled.
This was about to get uncomfortable
Ring and Colin were travelling to Venice for a holiday when the woman collapsed in the aisle near them. Ring recalled that crew members responded quickly and attempted to save her, but she died despite their efforts. He described witnessing the unsuccessful attempt to revive her as “pretty heart-breaking.”
The crew then reportedly tried to move the woman’s body toward business class. Ring explained that they were unable to get her through the aisle, so attention eventually turned to his row. He and Colin had been sitting in a row of four, with available seats beside them.
Ring recalled being asked to move over and agreeing without knowing exactly what would happen next. “Then they placed the lady in the chair I was in,” he explained. Her body was covered with blankets, leaving Ring sitting beside her for approximately the remaining four hours of the flight.
Colin eventually moved after another passenger offered her an empty seat nearby. Ring, however, claimed cabin crew never offered him the same option, despite him being able to see other vacant seats around the cabin.
The situation did not become any easier once the aircraft reached Doha. Ring recalled that passengers were asked to remain in their seats while police and medical personnel boarded. Ambulance officers then began removing the blankets covering the woman’s body.
Ring was still nearby and could see what was happening. “It wasn’t nice,” he said.
Colin described the experience as “traumatic” and argued that airlines need procedures that also consider passengers affected by a death onboard. She stressed that the couple did not blame Qatar Airways for the woman’s death, but questioned what support should be available to people who witness such an event.
The couple also initially claimed neither Qatar Airways nor Qantas, through which they had booked the trip, contacted them afterward to offer support. Qatar Airways later said it had spoken directly with the affected passengers and the deceased woman’s family.
The airline initially apologized for “any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused.” Following an internal review, Qatar Airways maintained that its cabin crew had acted “quickly, appropriately and professionally” and followed their training and industry practices. It also stated that a crew member remained with the deceased passenger until the aircraft landed.
Guidance from the International Air Transport Association recommends moving a deceased passenger to a seat when possible, preferably somewhere with few passengers nearby, and covering the body. It also advises crews to consider the difficulty of the situation for people witnessing it.
Former Virgin Atlantic captain Barry Eustance also questioned why Ring was not moved if other seats were available. He explained that crews would generally try to isolate a body to protect the deceased person’s privacy while limiting other passengers’ exposure.
For Ring and Colin, the issue was not that the crew had been unable to save the woman. It was what happened to the people sitting beside her after they couldn’t.
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