Summary
A couple on a Qatar Airways flight from Melbourne to Doha was forced to sit next to a deceased passenger for four hours after she collapsed and died mid-flight.
The flight crew moved the woman’s body to an empty seat beside them and denied their request to change seats.
Qatar Airways apologized but did not offer the couple support after the incident.
The couple, en route to Venice, criticized the airline’s handling of the situation but are trying to continue their trip despite the distressing experience.
It would make the most sense to move the body to a flight attendant seat and have an attendant sit with the passengers. Unless the flight is close to its destination, then it’s probably best to just leave it as moving a corpse is a real pain.
I think that the flight attendants have those dedicated seats at the ends of the cabin and facing it for a reason, so that they can see what’s going on in the cabin. Like, probably safety reasons for that.
Honestly, I’d just as soon not have a corpse next to me…but I’d also just as soon not have a living person next to me. I don’t see it as the world’s most traumatic experience. I mean, I don’t know whether it’s optimal or not, but it’s an airplane, sticking it there isn’t a wildly-unreasonable thing to do. I can’t see getting that worked up over it, as a passenger.
On the flip side, I also don’t think that it’s wildly-unreasonable for the airline to give them a voucher. I mean, it’s not like “dead body on an aircraft” is a common occurrence and it probably doesn’t cost very much to keep someone happy. I mean, I’ve gotten vouchers for being willing to take a later flight when I didn’t have any schedule to keep.
The whole thing just doesn’t seem like enough of an issue to get that worked up about or play hardball over.
I don’t think that would be allowed as per safety regulations.
Flight attendants are safety personnel who also serve food and drinks.
The jump seats facing the passengers are there for a reason.
Having said that if airlines would be allowed to fly without flight attendants they would.
It sounds cold but isnt this kind of the point of a body bag? To contain a human corpse without contaminating the surroundings, as well as ease of transportation, while also not taking up a huge amount of space when unneeded?
Good points! I was thinking more of the seats they have in the crew area (not all planes have it though), but I suppose contamination would still be a problem, although how much contamination can a fresh corpse really spread versus a living person?