Air flight distress

I listened to the report of this on the news and tbh they are just out to get compensation, which personally I find despicable. Someone is dead, they are sitting several feet away and people want to make money out of their death. What sort of world do we live in? Are we all frightened of dead bodies? I'm most certainly not. I've been privileged to be with my father and my mother in law when they died and I am pleased that I was. We need to grow up. We all die and the best we can hope is that those who are around us at that time show us respect rather than try to make money out of us.

Years ago my DDIL and DGS aged 1 were on a plane to NZ when a woman across the aisle died. She, the body, was moved into the kitchen area but the plane, which was approaching NZ, had to return to Australia because the death had occurred in Australian airspace and landed in Sydney.
No food could be served and the baby food was inaccessible in the kitchen. The baby howled!

To add insult to injury, the body was taken off the plane and the woman's poor husband also disembarked.
He was then , according to the newspaper report, separated from his wife and asked why he didn't have a visa to enter Australia!!

Shocking really.
My DDiL is a nurse but was very glad that there was also a doctor on board who volunteered to help.

The plane couldn't take off again for several hours because a new crew had to be found.
I suppose when you take a plane, you have to be prepared for the unexpected.

Link to the couple's interview explaining what happened.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz03l18jv97o.amp

Having listened to an interview the couple have given they explained were in a row of four seats. Husband moved to the seat at the end of the row, wife moved out of the row into a seat across the aisle from her husband (which is probably why he remained in that seat. There were then two empty seats between husband and dead woman. Wife seemed very upset, husband less so. They praised the crew for trying to revive the woman.

Exactly Monica I don’t understand why they just didn’t move themselves I wouldn't have waited for permission I d have just got up ….surely they needed all 3 seats anyway
Oh * nightowl* it wasn’t his mother or wife why not just up and move before they put the poor lady in the seats Sounds very poorly handled all round

Cabin crew asked him to move over, presumably towards the window but surely it was for them to say please could you move to this other free seat? To expect someone to sit next to a dead body for four hours is awful. Maybe he couldn't get past her once she was in the seat as it's said she was too large for the crew to manage to a different location. I would expect Qatar airlines to offer a free flight to the couple by way of saying thank you and as an apology for not handling the situation better.
Treat the deceased with as much dignity as possible while not overriding the safety and comfort of the other passengers. I would absolutely not want to be sitting next to a stranger's dead body for 4 hours. I didn't even see the dead bodies of my parents.

Perhaps he was in shock and didn’t want to make a fuss. It doesn’t mean he wasn’t distressed.

It's hard to believe that this person sat next to the poor unfortunate woman if he found it distressing; why didn't he simply go to another seat? He would have no need to complain if he had used his comon sense and made the right decisions for himself, but perhaps he thought it might be lucrative to stay where he was.

Many years ago, a man died on our flight back from Venice. At the time we’d sort of been upgraded to the front, beyond a curtain - I remember the Captain came back to sit and watch a football match with us!
Fortunately, we were completely unaware of the drama going on behind us, but when we came to deplane, the body was covered and laid across three seats. We were led to believe he’d been on his way to London for heart surgery.

We missed our connecting flight back to Newcastle and Alitalia provided us with overnight accommodation and seats on the morning flight back North.

It was another of my many travel tales.

The person who is complaining was left sitting next to to the deceased for 4 hours, even though the flight was not full and there were spare seats elsewhere in the aircraft.

In those circumstances, i would complain. Mind you, I would just have got up and moved to one of the unoccupied seats, whether the crew objected or not (and why should they)

I just couldnt/wouldnt agree to this! I would rather stand up elsewhere in fact anywhere than next to a corpse.

Yes it’s a true story * RosieandherMaw*
It’s on BBC news not just in the DM
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz03l18jv97o

I don’t think it would bother me that much after all they are not going to be chattering to you but I have no understanding why they didn’t get the man and his wife our put the arms up and lay the body across the three seats Maybe she was just to heavy for them to manoeuvre But the couple should have got some money back because some people would freak at sitting next to a corpse
No idea how this went into ‘care and carers’ I thought I d put it in NEWS

Well it looks as if this was handled very badly by the airline. We don’t know who went to the press with the story, we do know that once the press get a whiff of a story they can be pretty ruthless in pursuing those involved for more information and it is usually the press who sensationalise things from there.

I think to suggest the couple are after compensation is pretty cynical, I’m sure they would have preferred a flight free from the trauma of watching someone die and then having to sit next to that person for several hours. I don’t think I would ever want to fly again.

Jaxjacky

I don’t understand why the couple have gone to the press, well, probably some dollars involved, or perhaps that’s what they’re after - compensation

Exactly!

Where there is blame there is a claim!

We would have been deeply distressed if any of the passengers on my FIL’s flight had complained.

I don’t understand why the couple have gone to the press, well, probably some dollars involved, or perhaps that’s what they’re after - compensation

Sorry Sago. I as replying to Mnica.

I hope your father in law was treated with dignity.

People dying on planes is not that unusual. If the flight is full then what are they supposed to do- throw the body out?

I am sure this could probably have been managed better though- it's a no for Qatar airlines from me!

I think I’m not taking this story seriously. It was quite a sensational day in the DM altogether.

My FIL died on a plane, it was very traumatic for my MIL.
There was a doctor on the plane who came to their aid but sadly it was too late.

In such circumstances the priority has to be for the deceased.

Lathyrus3

The bit I find unbelievable that the couple were Aussies. I adore Australia and the positive, assertive attitude that seems to come with being Australian 😬

I can’t imagine a single one I’ve met putting up with that!

The problem is that when someone has just died and you are on a plane, even Austrailians can become abashed.

I like to think that in that situation I would be assertive in my demands. I do not lack anything in assertiveness, but, but, but, there are times when the most assertive of us sometimes think discretion is the better part of valour.

RosieandherMaw

It makes me feel sick

You and me both.

Like Astitchintime, I don't believe everything I read in the press - or at least, sometimes find it hard to believe what I'm reading, and we don't have Qatar Airway's side of the story - however, I cannot believe that any airline, or any other organisation come to that, would think it acceptable to place a dead body in close proximity to anyone. Especially if by doing so, the individual is effectively trapped for hours, unable to move past the deceased!

There were allegedly free seats available, but even if this wasn't the case, cabin-crew have seats allotted, and pull-down seating in the service area.

I'd like to hear Qatar's justification, if this story is as told by the passengers.

The bit I find unbelievable that the couple were Aussies. I adore Australia and the positive, assertive attitude that seems to come with being Australian 😬

I can’t imagine a single one I’ve met putting up with that!

It makes me feel sick

According to the BBC website, it was Qatar Airways. Must say I find it astonishing that the couple (Aussies) weren’t offered available seats elsewhere.

If the dead woman was ‘very large’, I can’t help wondering whether the couple could actually move, once the body was placed in the aisle seat. I’m speaking from the experience of having to climb over a ‘large’ person who was asleep, in order to get to the loo!

No prizes for guessing why I invariably want an aisle seat now.

Here’s link

news.sky.com/story/couple-forced-to-sit-next-to-dead-body-for-hours-on-qatar-airways-flight-13317026