A married pair was forced to sit next to a body for about four days after a woman passed away in the middle of an international flight.
Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin were flying from Melbourne, Australia to Doha, Qatar, on Qatar Airways last week when a , girl collapsed and died , after exiting a room about 10 days into the 14-hour journey, they told Australia’s Channel 9 earlier this year.
” They did everything they could, but sadly the girl couldn’t be saved, which was quite heartbreaking to watch”, Ring said.
The couple claims that the team attempted to remove the person from the aisle because of her size, but were unable to do so. Ring claimed that the team noticed that he and his family were seated together in a string of four seats, and that they placed the woman’s body, which was covered in blankets, in an empty chair close to them for the next four hours of the flight.
” They said,’ May you move through please?’ and I really said,’ Yes, no trouble.’ Then they placed the woman in the head I was in”, Ring explained.
The couple claimed that after landing, they were unable to change seats and were forced to remain seated ( along with all of the other passengers ) so that medical personnel could examine the deceased person.
” There were a couple extra votes around us that I could discover. I didn’t think they told us to keep”, Ring said. The hospital personnel then began removing the blankets from the woman sitting right in front of me. I was there and I got to see her face, yeah…it wasn’t good”.
Qatar Airways expressed regret for any pain or stress that this incident may have caused, and that it is currently contacting passengers in accordance with our policies and procedures in a statement.
The pair, who were eventually headed to Venice, Italy, said they were trying to get past the tragedy without it ruining their trip.
” I’m trying to make the best of a very difficult position, but, you know, we’re on festivals so we’re actually trying to have a good time”, Colin said.
According to the American Journal of Emergency Medicine,  , in-flight health situations and incidents are rare , with a mortality rate of 0.21 murders per million people.
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