Death on Saudia flight: Crew places body next to passenger from Vaud

After a death on a Saudia Airlines flight, the crew placed the body in the empty seats right next to a passenger from Vaud. (symbol image)imago/Rüdiger Wölk

A man from Bussigny VD spent the last three hours next to a body bag on a Saudia Airlines flight from Jeddah to Geneva.
The crew placed the bag containing a deceased person from Lyon on the empty seats right next to him.
After landing, all passengers had to wait until doctors classified the death as natural.

A man from Bussigny VD had the return flight from his pilgrimage to Mecca probably imagined completely differently. Like the 30-year-old opposite “View” Reportedly, he was traveling on a Saudia Airlines flight from Jeddah to Geneva on March 24 when the crew shot one during the flight Body bag on the empty seats right next to him placed. He spent the last three hours of the journey directly next to a deceased person.

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The journey home was initially quiet and uneventful, says the social worker of Moroccan origins. In the same row of seats in the back of the Airbus A330, another passenger was sitting next to him in the row of four. However, after the on-board service, passengers noticed a disturbance in the front cabin area. Shortly afterwards, the man in the row of four was asked to change his seat.

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“Then the crew came with a large black bag, which they placed lengthways on the now empty seats to my right. Shortly afterwards, a 40-year-old man followed who was completely distraught and sat down one row behind me,” the Vaudois tells “Blick”.

When an older woman asked in Arabic whether there was a deceased person in the bag, the 30-year-old realized what had happened. Meanwhile, several passengers came to the grieving relative to express their condolences. An imam also spoke to the man and explained to him the next steps until the burial.

A man from Vaud sat next to a deceased passenger for three hours on his flight from Saudi Arabia to Geneva. (symbol image)IMAGO/NurPhoto

Passengers had to wait for the police to come

According to information from “Blick”, the deceased was a seriously ill man from Lyon who had fulfilled his wish of making the pilgrimage to Mecca before his death. Although many passengers showed compassion and solidarity with the relatives, the rest of the flight became psychologically stressful for the witness. «I felt uncomfortable and didn’t know how to behave. It was impossible for me to just continue watching my film. I couldn’t think of anything else,” he says.

After landing in Geneva, police and rescue workers entered the plane and asked the passengers to remain in their seats. A short time later, all travelers were taken to an area near baggage claim. They had to wait there until doctors examined the body. Since the authorities assumed the death was of natural causes, the passengers were finally able to leave the airport after passport control.

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