A dream trip to Venice turned into nightmare for an Australian couple after a passenger died midway into the flight and the crew decided to put the dead body in a seat beside them. The couple, Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin were aboard the Qatar Airways flight when a woman suddenly collapsed in the aisle after going to the toilet, according to a report in news.com.au

Despite the crew’s best efforts, she could not be revived and died on the spot. “Unfortunately, the lady couldn’t be saved, which was pretty heartbreaking to watch,” said Mr Ring.

After the crew spotted vacant seats on both sides of the couple, they asked them to move over to make space for the body.

“They looked a bit frustrated and then they just looked at me and saw seats were available beside me – my wife was on the other side, we’re in a row of four by ourselves – and they just said to me, ‘Can you move over, please?'”

The dead woman’s body, wrapped in a blanket was then placed on the seat, much to the horror of the couple, who had to endure the remaining four hours next to it.

“When my husband turned around and said, “move, move”, I was pretty shocked and I said, ‘are they going to put her there?'” said Ms Colin, a self-admitted nervous flyer.

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Things turned worse when the couple was forced to wait after the landing as police and medical officers boarded the plane. The couple said they had been traumatised by the entire incident. They claimed that there were other empty seats on their flight but the crew did not offer to relocate them to another seat.

After the couple’s horrific experience went viral, Qatar Airways apologised, adding that they were looking into the incident.

“We apologise for any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused, and are in the process of contacting passengers in line with our policies and procedures.”

Meanwhile, Qantas, through which the couple booked the flight, also said it would reach out to them.

“Ms Colin booked tickets through Qantas and travelled with Qatar Airways, a fellow Oneworld Alliance carrier,” a Qantas spokesperson said.

“The process for handling incidents onboard an aircraft like this is managed by the operating airline, which in this case is Qatar Airways.”