Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin claim they were forced to sit next to the passenger who they witnessed die beside them
A long-haul flight turned into a nightmare when a tragedy struck mid-flight, resulting in the death of a passenger. With no place to store her body, she was placed in a seat beside a nervous flyer, forever marking the journey.
Jennifer Colin and her partner Mitchell Ring were heading to Venice, Italy, from their home in Melbourne, Australia. What was supposed to be a dream vacation quickly turned into an emotional and harrowing ordeal. A woman, who had just exited the bathroom near their seats, suddenly collapsed. Despite the crew’s efforts, she could not be revived. “It was pretty heartbreaking to watch,” a visibly shaken Ring told Australian TV outlet 9Now. “They tried to move her toward business class, but she was too large for them to get her through the aisle.”
Ring described how the situation became more desperate. “They looked frustrated, then glanced at me and noticed there were available seats beside me. My wife was on the other side, and we were in a row of four.”
“They asked, ‘Can you move over, please?’ and I said, ‘Yes, no problem,'” he continued. “And then they placed the lady in the seat where I had been sitting.”
It was only the first leg of their 20-hour flight to Venice, but the memory of the deceased woman would haunt them for the rest of the journey. Their ordeal ended only when they finally landed in Doha, Qatar. However, by then, the image of the lifeless body had left a permanent imprint on their minds.
Mitchell Ring claimed that the cabin crew of Qatar Airways offered no support following the tragic incident, leaving him and his partner, Jennifer Colin, in an unsettling position. Despite there being several vacant seats nearby, Ring said they were never offered the opportunity to move, and the crew appeared indifferent to the situation.
In the end, Colin was able to move after a compassionate passenger behind them offered her a seat. However, Ring was left to endure the remainder of the flight in the same row as the deceased passenger. The discomfort of the situation continued to unfold upon landing, when Ring claimed that he was instructed to remain seated as paramedics boarded the plane. They removed the blankets covering the deceased woman, leaving an indelible memory of the tragic event that had unfolded mid-flight.
“I can’t believe they told us to stay… it wasn’t nice,” Mitchell Ring expressed, still shaken by the experience.
He went on to emphasize the responsibility of the airline, stating, “They have a duty of care towards their customers as well as their staff. We should have been contacted to make sure we were okay, to see if we needed any support or counseling. I don’t really know how I feel and would like to speak to somebody to make sure I’m alright.”
In response to the allegations, a spokesperson for Qatar Airways said, “First and foremost, our thoughts are with the family of the passenger who sadly passed away on board our flight. We apologize for any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused, and we are in the process of contacting passengers in line with our policies and procedures.”
