Australians sat next to dead body on plane for hours

They never imagined they would start their holiday in such a macabre way: an Australian couple have described how they were not happy about spending several hours of their flight from Melbourne to Doha sitting next to the body of a female passenger who died on the plane.

Mitchell Ring told Australia's Nine News this week that Qatar Airways cabin crew initially tried to move the body to business class on the 14-hour flight. "But she was quite a large lady and they couldn't get her down the aisle," he said. "They looked over at me and saw empty seats next to me," he said. "They asked me, 'Can you please move' and I said, 'Yes, no problem,'" he added, noting that there were other empty seats nearby.

The Australian, who was travelling with his wife Jennifer Colin to Venice via Doha, gave up his seat to the body, wrapped in blankets, and spent the remaining four hours next to it. Once the plane landed in Qatar, the couple had to wait for paramedics to arrive before they could get out. "The paramedics started to remove the blankets from the lady," Mitchell Ring said. "It was not pleasant." "There needs to be a protocol for the treatment of passengers on board," Colin said. Qatar Airways apologized in a statement sent to Australian media for "any inconvenience and suffering that the incident may have caused," sending its "thoughts to the family of the passenger who sadly passed away."