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.
Couldn’t have placed the body in the cargo hold or one of the bathrooms? I think passengers wouldn’t have minded being one bathroom down.
Doubtful those are actual options. Bathroom? How are they going to secure the body incase of an emergency? It’ll just be bouncing around in the bathroom. I don’t think the door is strong enough to keep the body from falling out. And access to the cargo hold through the plane is very tight/small. It’s hard enough to be an able body person getting down there. Dragging a body would be next to impossible.
Access to the cargo hold? That’s a myth made up by movies. Checked bags have different security standards for a reason, they’re completely separate from passengers.
That depends on the aircaft. It’s very accessible on the ART42/72.
Even if the body was in the aisle seat… Can you imagine hauling a body down the aisle of a fully booked flight?
Just put on the seatbelt sign and do a parabolic arc to simulate microgravity. Way easier to nudge a body around then!
Put it in the first class or the crew bunkers. Anywhere but there…
Why not secure it in a flight attendant seat in the back and the flight attendant take the seat next to the living people?
It makes the most sense.
deleted by creator
Excuse me, but movies told me there’s a trap door or tiny elevator to get down there, is that not the case??
Deleted my comment.
After looking into it more; there is access inside, but it’s typically secured with a pressure differential and several locks.
They’d only really access it if absolutely required; for example to fight a fire in the cargo hold.
Bathroom would have been a good solution. Or just move her to a back seat and move the living passengers away. Bizarre they forced a couple to sit beside her.
I don’t think you needed to delete your comments; they were just being cheeky hahaha
Also as a person who has only flown a couple times, I didn’t know there wasn’t a way to the cargo hold (though when I think about it, it makes sense… shit’s pressurized, yo)
I think the only thing they’re pissed about is the airline didn’t allow them to move seats after they put the woman not in her original seat and probably being forced to stay on the plane longer than needed, potentially missing their connection to Venice, while medics came on board to haul her away.
If the flight wasn’t full and they didn’t allow them to move seats that’s extremely messed up.
Honestly they could’ve secured the body to one of the flight staff seats. If there’s no extra, the flight attendant could sit next to a passenger.
That’s a good point. Wonder why they didn’t just do that?
Cause flight crew are seated next to emergency exits for a reason. Safety > inconvenience
Most of the planes I’ve been on had at least some crew seats tucked into the back and out of the way of the primary exits if I am remembering correctly. There probably is a good reason, such as tripping hazards for the crew doing their work or the seats not really being effective for long term seating and keeping the body in place (I’m thinking of the fold down crew seats).
Flight crew are seated next to emergency exits during landing, they would occupy all crew seats except for any in a crew rest area (which is reached by ladder).
It’s a dead body, it won’t harass you. They might get rigor mortis but decomposition won’t have time to start. Passengers comfort is last priority while balancing a metal tube going 900 km/h though the stratosphere. Some compensation can be arranged when back on the ground.
See above.
Technically, there was at least 1 free seat since the woman wasn’t using it anymore.
But that begs the question, assuming the entire plane was full then the lady was sitting next to at least one other person. They moved her from that seat to be in next to the couple in question. So it seems to me there is no situation where it’s not extremely messed up.
Yeah the only thing I could think of was that maybe the couple didn’t want to split up and there was only 1 other free seat.
But I think we’ll just learn that the airline was being incompetent.
In his autobiography Ozzy Osborne related a story about the guy next to him dying on a flight. He informed the flight attendant who gave him the choice of moving seats or staying put with free drinks for the remainder of the flight, so he stayed in place and got blasted out of his mind.
Joke’s on Ozzy if that was an international flight, you get free drinks on those whether or not someone next to you dies
What? I flew Rome to New York and everyone got a tiny water bottle for the entire flight and all other drinks (including more water) were crazy expensive
Maybe it’s different when you’re starting in the States, but every international flight I’ve been on has served at least two meals and complimentary drinks.
If there’s even the slightest chance that something could be shittier in the United States come on the answer is yes.
No, I’m saying all of my international flights that take off from the States have had complimentary meals and drinks
This has little to do with a flight being international or not, or where it starts. It depends on the airline and its policies. For example: Aeroflot serves “real” food starting from 3 hour flights. Munich to St Petersburg is 2 hours 55 minutes, so you get a horrible sandwich that haunts me to this day. But at least you get non alcoholic beverages for free. If you fly this route with Lufthansa, you get a warm meal with a free beer.
The flight I was referring to (Rome - New York and back) was a Lufthansa flight, but operated by Eurowings. They are a cheap airline, and it depended on your ticket whether or not food and one beverage was included or not. Most people did not have food included in their ticket, they still could buy some on board for like 18€. Only a small bottle of water was provided, although the flight was 6 hours.
Munich to Brussels is 55 minutes. Lufthansa gives you crackers and a non alcoholic beverage for free, and they struggle for their lives to get that to you in such a short period of time.
Ah, well that makes sense I suppose. Thanks for laying that all out so clearly and setting me straight. For anyone who’s curious, Delta and American Airlines are the ones who served free meals and beverages on the long flights I’ve been on
Perhaps it’s time to bring back the amenity that Singapore Airlines devised to handle this situation on their ultra-long-haul flights in the Airbus 340-500 – the corpse cupboard: https://simpleflying.com/singapore-airlines-airbus-a340-500-corpse-cupboards-history/
The airline installed a discreet locker next to one of the aircraft’s exit doors to hold an average-sized human body. Special straps were also provided to secure the body and prevent it from being moved by turbulence or during landing.
Accurate. Are you a summarization bot?
I think he might just be some guy. Possibly the 3rd in a long line of guys.
Bless Singapore and their innovation in shoving humans bodies into cupboards, from domestic workers in apartments to corpses on airplanes
Qatar Airways introduces new “corpse class” seating—no upgrades, but plenty of legroom for one.
😿😿😿😿
I’ve sat next to many a passenger who was dead from the neck upwards.
If the movie Commando has taught me anything, it’s that a dead person covered to look like they are asleep, can make an 8 hour flight without notice.
You just need a blanket and a pillow (and John Matrix).We all have so much to learn from Commando.
I made a ton of extra room in my Camry by ripping the seats out like a goddamn silverback.
Does anyone know if there’s actual protocol in these situations?
I actually know someone who died on a plane last year and, while they did at least make an emergency landing at a nearby airport, I’ve never thought about where they kept the body during that time. I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to ask his surviving family that was with him, probably not.
Cover the body, and relocate surrounding passengers, if possible, if you can’t move the body to business class (moving a dead body respectfully is very hard).
Apparently there were free seats elsewhere, the pax should have been offered relocation.
However it’s not clear if the passengers asked. The cabin crew could have been rattled too and forgot.Edit: They apparently asked, I don’t see why they couldn’t move.
Slightly unrelated, but last time I vomited during a flight they refused to take the bag and throw it away. I had to sit there for 6 hours, holding an uncloseable plastic bag full of my own vomit. Next to other passengers. Like, I get that it’s technically some kind of hazard waste that flight attendants shouldn’t have to handle, but the alternative is me potentially accidentally spilling it on or near other passengers. I had to carry it off the plane with me like it was my carry-on. It was absolutely ridiculous.
Damn, I’ve never seen an uncloseable barf bag before. Usually that have those metal tabs at the top to close it up and mitigate the smell. Flying is shitty enough as it is, what an awful experience! Sorry you had to go through that.
just empty it in the plane bathroom
I’d sit next to a dead person on every damn flight if I had the choice.
There’s bodily fluids that leak out afterwards. I don’t think you’d want that to splash on you during turbulence.
I feel like if they had asked for volunteers to sit next to the body they would have gotten some. It’s morbid, yes, but on a practical level it’s more comfortable than being squished next to a living stranger.
Instincts, man. People here lack them. Don’t hang out next to a dead body of someone who just randomly collapsed, especially on something like a plane which can experience bad turbulence.
Well, she did die in the bathroom, so maybe her bowels are emptied?
She could bleed out of her mouth, nose, or other orifices depending on how she died, and people have a lot of blood in them. Also pee, vomit
Cover her with blankets.
Blankets aren’t waterproof. And bodies that are dead are very floppy, trash bags can be punctured when they shift around.
Eh, still beats a living stranger.
Maybe she was Elvis
“Hey, this is MY armrest.” shoves corpse
I think that’s a fairly reasonable solution. The problem is asking people though. Can’t really blast on the loud speaker that someone died, hard to go seat by seat.
On a related note, why don’t more people just drop dead while driving a car? Like I can’t think of a single story that I’m aware of that went “yeah he had a heart attack and then ran the car off the road”
I feel like it should be a daily occurrence
Probably because after they do, they crash and it will generally be assumed the crash is what killed them.
It’s going to be real weird when self driving cars finally work and sometimes cars just pull up with a dead body in it.
See Harry Chapin.
The news just doesn’t report shit like that.
I used to work with a lady who, upon missing her shift, the next day the managers were all going around quietly telling staff that she died on her way to work, that she’d had a massive stroke while driving. New fear unlocked that day. But yeah I guess you don’t hear about it on the news because the may just assume car accident is what causes the fatalities.
I knew someone that was orphaned in high school because his dad had a heart attack, crashed, killed himself and his wife.
Yeah no I knew someone that had that happen, he managed to park on the emergency lane and it took a while for someone to figure out that he was dead.
I lost the first car I’d purchased outright to a "dead behind the wheel’ driver, and I wasn’t even in it!
A friend had borrowed the car, just a couple weeks after buying it, and was stopped at an intersection - An older man had a heart attack, barreled through the intersection, hit a pole, and then kept turning and t-boned my friend in my car. No injuries (other than the dead guy) but my car was totaled. Insurance payout was super!
I imagine a contributing factor is that most people who drop dead randomly are of an age where they generally don’t drive, or don’t drive as much.
Wait until they figure out self driving cars enough for grandmas to show up dead at places.
Go ahead, put me next to the body. But don’t for a second think you can stop me from acting out that scene in Commando for the rest of the flight.
“Please dont disturb my friend, he’s dead tired”
This plus unruly passengers is why I think a spare seat away from the other passengers should be mandatory on all passenger planes. Then we wouldn’t get dead bodies with nowhere to put them or dangerous passengers duct taped to their seat.
No more fighting for the armrest, no snoring, no chit chat? Well…
On the other hand, if body odor bothers you…
In four hours and in a relatively cool room, with adequate ventilation, that’s not really a problem. It’s not like they picked a decomposing corpse before take off and stuffed it there.
Worst case scenario order a coffee and leave it on it.
It’s not the decomposition, it’s the bladder and bowels slowly emptying themselves!
Nice one. Counterpoint, it seems the person was fresh out of the restroom.
(I feel the need to say it, but I’m not actually that serious about sitting near a corpse for hours)
Yeah fuck Qatar Air
deleted by creator
