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.
They could have asked if anyone had medical experience, then followed up with the spiel about there being a body on board and needing someone who can handle it. The pool of potential volunteers would be narrowed down to those who could provide some basic postmortem care and then respectfully stay with the body through the rest of the flight. The potential for abuse would still be there ofc, but it’d be way lower than just outright asking who’s cool with hanging out with a corpse for a few hours.
…honestly, saying that, it might not be a horrible idea to have a “I’m a medical professional” checkbox when buying the ticket. Even as ‘just’ a tech, I could handle some basic emergencies and wouldn’t be horribly traumatized around a body. Shit, throw in a free flight in the event that some kind of emergency intervention is needed, and I’d be down to have my name added to some kind of short list of volunteers for every single flight.