Qatar Airways is now responding after passengers claim they were forced to sit next to a dead body for four hours on flight from Melbourne, Australia to Doha, Qatar.

Qatar Airways has defended the decision to leave a couple sitting next to a dead passenger on a 15-hour flight, saying that its crew "acted quickly, appropriately and professionally".

An airline traveler has spoken of his shock after cabin staff sat him next to the body of a fellow passenger who had died during the flight.