Australian couple forced to sit next to dead body on Qatar Airways flight: 'Really shocked'

Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin were travelling from Melbourne to Doha, en route to Italy. (File photo)

An Australian couple were forced to sit next to the body of a passenger, who had died on the plane, for four hours on a flight from Australia to Qatar.

Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin were travelling from Melbourne to Doha, en route to Italy's Venice, when a woman walked out the toilet and collapsed near their row about 10 hours into the journey.

"Unfortunately the lady couldn't be saved, which was pretty heartbreaking to watch," Mitchell Ring told Channel Nine's Current Affair programme, BBC reported.

He added that the cabin crew tried to move her body towards business class "but she was quite a large lady and they couldn't get her through the aisle".

The pair, who were the only ones in a row of four, said flight attendants put the woman in one of the spare seats.

Ring told Australian media, according to CNN, "They said, 'Can you move over please?' and I just said, 'Yes no problem'. Then they placed the lady in the chair I was in."

The couple say cabin crew placed her corpse, covered in blankets, next to Ring for the remaining four hours of the flight without offering to move him, despite there being empty seats, while Colin was able to move to an empty seat nearby.

“I was really shocked,” Colin told Nine, calling the experience “traumatic.”

“We totally understand that we can’t hold the airline responsible for the poor lady’s death, but there has to be a protocol then to look after the customers that are on board,” she said.

When the plane landed four hours later, Ring said passengers were asked to stay put while medical staff and police came on board.

Qatar Airways said it apologised for "any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused", adding that it was in the process of contacting passengers, according to BBC.

The couple, meanwhile, said they had not been contacted or offered support by Qatar Airways or Qantas Airways, through which the pair booked their flights. They said there should be a protocol to ensure passengers onboard were looked after in such situations.