5mo ago

Couple forced to sit next to dead body on plane for 4 hours after woman dies mid-flight

www.nbcnews.com

Couple forced to sit next to dead body on plane for 4 hours after woman dies midflight

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.

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5mo ago

Couple forced to sit next to dead body on plane for 4 hours after woman dies midflight

www.nbcnews.com /news/world/couple-forced-sit-dead-body-plane-4-hours-woman-dies-flight-rcna193617

98 comments

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.
  
  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.
  
  Even if it was full they should have found an alternate method of securing the body. They’re already dead, they don’t need a seat.
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
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?
- Bless Singapore and their innovation in shoving humans bodies into cupboards, from domestic workers in apartments to corpses on airplanes
I mean... it is shit but there isn't a lot to do in this situation.
You might think they should put the body in the bathroom or cargo hold. Actual direct access to the cargo hold during flight is not feasible on most passenger flights due to pressurization/climate and safety concerns. Also, if they don't have enough straps to tie down the body then that is going to be a REALLY bad PR mess when they remove a corpse that had been bouncing around and off of luggage during a landing. And if they do have enough straps, that is a completely different PR mess.
Same for the bathroom. For a 14 hour flight I assume this jet had multiple bathrooms. But you still have the problem of a body that bounced around a bathroom during landing.
Versus? You get it away from the family so they are less traumatized. You then put a blanket on it and buckle it in so that the body is safe.
It would really suck to be the people next to where teh body ended up. But if the flight was full? Having a flight attendant say "Excuse me. Is anyone cool with sitting next to a dead body?" isn't going to end well... and all but guarantees you get the kind of people who shouldn't be allowed near a corpse to volunteer.
MAYBE put them in a flight attendant seat but those tend to be near the galley which has its own health issues. And if it is a flight with sleeping quarters for the crew (likely for a 14 hour flight) that is both a safety concern (crew can't rest) AND all the same "body bouncing around" problems as the others.
As for what Qatar Airways should have done? Personally, I would have just offered the couple a shit ton of miles. A full refund isn't "right" since we have all sat next to things we don't want to (I would honestly rather sit next to a corpse than a morbidly obese person who insists on resting their arms over my body the entire flight...). And general counseling really isn't something the airline has on staff, although it would be nice if they offered to pay for some of it.
- It would make the most sense to move the body to a flight attendant seat and have an attendant sit with the passengers. Unless the flight is close to its destination, then it's probably best to just leave it as moving a corpse is a real pain.
  
  MAYBE put them in a flight attendant seat but those tend to be near the galley which has its own health issues. And if it is a flight with sleeping quarters for the crew (likely for a 14 hour flight) that is both a safety concern (crew can’t rest) AND all the same “body bouncing around” problems as the others.
- “Excuse me. Is anyone cool with sitting next to a dead body?” isn’t going to end well… and all but guarantees you get the kind of people who shouldn’t be allowed near a corpse to volunteer.
  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.
  
  That’s right. I’m a doctor.
- And, as an aside, one of my "favorite" flight stories:
  Was flying into DFW for a connection to get home. About an hour before we landed, the flight attendants got up to do their usual credit card schpiel but cut off partway through and rushed to the back. Everyone around me turned around to look. I... went back to my book.
  A few minutes later they actually do an "Is anyone a doctor" call. Then ten or so minutes later they talk about how when we land everyone needs to stay seated while a passenger is removed from the flight. And then... they got back on the intercom to say that we should ignore that request and deplane normally.
  I meant to check what said passenger died of (even if the medical emergency was under control they would have wanted to get them off ASAP for liability reasons) but it had snowed three states over so DFW was already a refugee camp at 6 PM as every single flight was cancelled or delayed. By the time I got home (three days later...) I was already too lazy to check exactly when we landed and so forth.
- I guess?? In case of a medical emergency they would typically try to make an emergency landing (I hope??). So how did this person die, and how certain were they that they could not recessitate? Did it happen over sea or land? Honestly it raises a ton of questions.
  
  Its an international flight. I went to american public school so my geography is shit but Australia to Qatar has a lot of countries in between, all with their own visa and even safety requirements.
  If it were an actual medical emergency where they (at the airline) felt an emergency landing (which would still be closer to hours away anyway) would make a difference AND they could safely land somewhere that was willing to isolate the passengers who aren't legally authorized to be in country (also potential quarantine concerns)? They would.
  Otherwise? You go to the nearest safe place to land which is often the destination anyway.
  That is why you'll see the occasional story about how a transatlantic flight got halfway across and then turned around because of a problem. And a friend who used to fly passenger flights from LAX to HND would always talk about the point of no return where any diversion is about as long as the flight itself anyway.
  
  It happened over the sea.
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.
Qatar Airways introduces new "corpse class" seating—no upgrades, but plenty of legroom for one.
😿😿😿😿
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"
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.
  
  I’m interested as to why they moved the body in the first place.
- 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.
- 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.
  
  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.
- There's bodily fluids that leak out afterwards. I don't think you'd want that to splash on you during turbulence.
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.
  https://harrychapin.com/misc/howdied.shtml
- 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.
- 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 wonder if it's one of those kinds of deaths that just makes the local paper unless they take out a lot of people with them.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7847085/ article discussing 21 fatal heart attacks while driving during a period of time in china
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23343022/ article discussing the results of the Finnish Road Accident Investigation Teams (RAITs) on fMVAs in Finland during 2008-2009. 11% of these were because of "disease attack."
  Severe injuries may mask the role of an initial disease attack.
  These articles make it seem like unless there's careful investigation after the fact, it's very difficult to know for sure if illness caused the accident.
  So it probably is a daily occurance, depending on how many fatal accidents happen in your country. (and depending on a million other factors, most likely)
  
  So the road toll might not actually be because of cars
- 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.
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.
Yeah fuck Qatar Air
It really should be policy to allow at least the seat(s) next to the deceased (I understand not moving the body for coroner/investigation reasons, though they did in this case at which point why not put them in a bathroom and guard It you have extras) use any surplus steward seats or those staff seats in the cockpit for employees.
Just basic decency in the event of an extreme circumstance.
https://youtu.be/7d_7FeXp_7k

98 comments