Cabin crew reportedly waited 20 minutes before attempting to perform CPR on a woman who later died on board a Qatar Airways flight to Sydney last week.
The 60-year-old woman, believed to be from Campbelltown in Sydney’s southwest, was traveling on Qatar Airways flight QR908 from Doha when she was found unconscious during the 14-hour journey.
Passengers Francesca and her husband Enrico, who only gave their first names for privacy reasons, revealed that after her death the flight crew “just left her there”, covered with a blanket.
The airline had previously said the passenger “couldn’t be revived”, but Francesca and Enrico, sitting across from the woman, revealed “they didn’t feel like (the cabin crew) did enough”.
A 60-year-old woman, believed to be from Campbelltown, in Sydney’s southwest, was traveling on Qatar Airways flight QR908 from Doha when she was found unconscious. She later died (stock image)
The 60-year-old woman, believed to be from Campbelltown, southwest Sydney, was traveling on Qatar Airways flight QR908 from Doha when she was found unconscious during the 14-hour journey (stock image ).
The couple first alerted airline stewards after hearing the woman make a “strange noise”.
“She looked like she was sleeping, but she was making a really loud noise,” Francesca said.
The staff tried to wake the woman and called other crew members who brought an oxygen mask.
“But then they left,” Francesca said.
The couple claims staff told them “everything was fine.”
“You could see she wasn’t breathing,” Francesca said.
Then, Francesca claimed, another 20 minutes passed before a cabin crew member returned with another passenger to try to move the “limp” woman from her seat.
They moved her to another section of the plane, where they allegedly performed CPR and used a defibrillator.
“I think at that point she was gone,” Francesca said.
Another passenger criticized the cabin crew’s response, saying: “They just left her there.”
“Why didn’t they do it half an hour earlier?”
An announcement over the public address system then asked if there were any doctors on board.
Another half hour passed before the passengers behind Francesca and her husband were moved and the woman’s corpse was brought back to the row of seats and covered with a blanket.
When the plane landed, everyone was asked to remain seated while emergency crews tended to the deceased woman.
Francesca said the airline should have handled the situation better.
“They just left it there,” she said.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Qatar Airways for comment.
