A Melbourne couple who say they had to sit next to a dead passenger on a Qatar Airways flight have shared their “traumatising” experience. 

Mitch and Jenny appeared on A Current Affair on Monday, telling host Ally Langdon how a woman collapsed in the aisle beside them during a flight from Melbourne to Doha. 

“The staff were there in no time, and I pat them on the back, they did a wonderful job trying to revive her,” Mitch told Langdon. 

Though airline staff “did everything they could”, the woman could not be resuscitated. They then attempted to place the deceased woman in a wheelchair and move her to business class, but were unable to, Mitch said. 

“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 be, ‘Can you move over, please?’ and I just said, ‘Yes, no problem’, and then they placed the lady in the chair that I was in.” 

Jenny, who held back tears throughout the interview, said the ordeal had been “traumatising” — and moved to an empty seat in a different row when another passenger offered it to her. 

Mitch and Jenny told A Current Affair host Ally Langdon about their in-flight ordeal. Photo / Nine 

The couple claim that though there were more empty seats available, the flight crew did not offer to move them for the rest of the trip, which lasted another four hours. 

They said that when emergency staff boarded the plane after landing, they took the blankets off the deceased woman before the rest of the passengers had disembarked. 

Instead, they were told to stay in their seats. 

“I was there and I got to see her face. Yeah, it wasn’t nice. I can’t believe they told us to stay,” Mitch said. 

According to International Air Transport Association protocol, if a passenger dies during a flight, they should be moved to an empty row of seats — or to their assigned seat if all the seats are full — and covered with a blanket as a sign of respect. 

Qatar Airways is looking into the incident and has been contacted by Australian media for comment.