An Australian couple began their romantic vacation to Venice seated next to a dead body for the final four hours of a 14-hour flight. A woman collapsed in the aisle next to their row on a Qatar Airways plane flying from Melbourne to Doha, Qatar. At around 35,000 feet over the Indian Ocean, the cabin crew unsuccessfully attempted to save the passenger’s life. The crew placed the body, now covered in blankets, in an empty seat and continued to Doha.
Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin recounted their traumatic experience to Australia’s Channel Nine. Colin said, “We totally understand that we can’t hold the airline responsible for the poor lady’s death, but there has to be a protocol then to look after the customers that are on board.” However, based on her account, Qatar Airways followed the guidelines established by the International Air Transport Association. The Gulf flag carrier said as such in its statement regarding the incident released on Wednesday.
There’s a protocol for deaths during flights
IATA, the airline industry’s global trade association, has a protocol for dealing with a death on board a flight. The first step is straightforward: The cabin crew informs the captain so the destination airport can gather the authorities to meet the flight at the gate. If the passenger is presumed dead, then the opportunity to divert to a close airport had already passed or wasn’t available at all.
The second step recommends that the crew put the passenger into a seat, preferably one not in a crowded area of the aircraft. Ring noted in their interview, “She was quite a large lady, and they couldn’t get her through the aisle.” The Qatar cabin crew wanted to move the woman’s body into business class as the suite privacy door would have hidden the body from view, but they chose the closer empty seat as the alternative. Ring and Colin were sitting in a four-seat row with two empty seats. If the plane was fully booked, then IATA guidelines state the cabin crew should put the passenger’s body back in their own seat.
It was an unfortunate situation
Steps three through five detail how the cabin crew should handle the body. The deceased should be placed into a bodybag, if available, and zippered up to the neck. Then, the person should be buckled into the seat and their eyes closed. The idea is to keep the person restrained in case there’s turbulence during the rest of the flight. Seeing someone die is traumatic enough. No one wants to get hit by a corpse while flying through rough air.
The sixth and seventh steps are the final two. The guidelines tell the cabin crew to request contact information if they were flying with a companion. Finally, the cabin crew should also disembark all of the other passengers first before letting the local authorities board the plane while letting family members remain with the body. This didn’t happen with the Qatar Airways flight. Colin had moved to another seat, but the body was seated between Ring and the aisle so he couldn’t leave when the plane reached the gate. The entire situation wasn’t ideal for anyone, but there weren’t many options in a small metal tube hurtling through the sky.