Qatar Airways says sorry after seating a recently deceased passenger next to ‘traumatised’ travellers
Tuesday, 25 February 2025
Qatar Airways has apologised after cabin crew sat a recently deceased passenger next to an Australian couple while on a long-haul flight to Doha.
Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colinsaw were flying from Melbourne when a fellow traveller passed away mid-flight. The identity of the woman and cause of death have not been revealed.
Ring told Australian TV show A Current Affair the cabin crew initially wanted to move the passenger’s body into business class, but struggled to transport the woman up the aisle.
The couple said despite there being free seats around them, the crew asked Ring to move over and put the dead woman into his seat.
“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. They said, 'Can you move over please?' and I just said, 'Yes no problem',” said Ring.
'Then they placed the lady in the chair I was in.'
The woman was covered up but the situation still left the couple traumatised.
They are now in Venice but had hoped to hear from the airline: “They have a duty of care towards their customers as well as their staff, we should be contacted to make sure, do you need some support, do you need some counselling.”
In statement to Stuff, a Qatar Airways spokesperson said: “First and foremost our thoughts are with the family of the passenger who sadly passed away on board our flight.
“We apologise for any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused, and are in the process of contacting passengers in line with our policies and procedures.”
The couple had booked through Qantas and the Australian carrier also said it would contact them.
'Ms Colin booked tickets through Qantas and travelled with Qatar Airways, a fellow Oneworld Alliance carrier,' a spokesperson told A Current Affair.
'The process for handling incidents onboard an aircraft like this is managed by the operating airline, which in this case is Qatar Airways.'
It is pretty rare for a traveller to die mid-flight. Airlines deal with the situation differently but most will try to find an empty row to put the person in.
The International Air Transport Association has guidelines about this situation.
“Move the person to a seat - if available, one with few other passengers nearby. If the aircraft is full, put the person back into his/her own seat, or at the crew's discretion, into another area not obstructing an aisle or exit. Take extra care when moving the person and be aware of the difficulty of the situation for companions and onlookers.”
Singapore Airlines once installed 'corpse cupboards' on its fleet of Airbus A340-500s in case of any mid-flight deaths but reportedly were never needed. That particular model of aircraft is no longer used by the airline.
A study by the New England Journal of Medicine looked at 11,920 in-flight medical emergencies from January 1, 2008, through October 31, 2010 on five US domestic and international airlines. It found that only 0.3% of those cases resulted in a death.
The research showed there was one in-flight medical emergency per 604 flights.