Co-Flier Recalls "Innocent Face" Of Indian-Origin Woman Who Died Mid-Flight

A man seated next to an Indian-origin woman, who suddenly collapsed and died moments before her flight from Melbourne to New Delhi took off, said he is "haunted" by the incident. The incident happened on June 20 when 24-year-old Manpreet Kaur boarded a Qantas flight to fly to Delhi. She suffered a medical episode while putting her seatbelt on and died on the spot. Ravinder Arora was sitting next to her and noticed Ms Kaur when he was taking his seat.

"When I boarded the plane, she was already seated in the aisle. I was in the window, so I asked if she could please get up so I could occupy my seat," he told NewsAU.

"I noticed that she began scrolling through photos on her mobile phone and stopped at a photograph of an elderly couple," said Mr Singh. "I asked if they were her parents. She smiled and nodded and kept staring at it."

Ms Kaur was going to India for the first time in four years.

As the plane began moving on the runway, Mr Singh said the woman leaned forward resting her head on the seat in front of her. But a jerk in the plane caused Ms Kaur's head to move towards Mr Singh. He realised something was wrong and and alerted the crew.

The flight attendants did everything to revive her but all the efforts were unsuccessful.

Mr Singh said he remains haunted by the incident.

"The incident has been etched in my memory for life. It is very difficult to digest that a young girl with whom you were just interacting with has passed away in front of your eyes," he told the outlet.

"Her innocent face stills haunts me and I want her parents to know she loved them a lot. She left this world peacefully looking at their photograph. My heart breaks for her family who would have been looking forward to seeing her after a long time," Mr Singh added.

Ms Kaur was studying in Melbourne and wanted to become a chef. Her body cannot leave Australia because she died from tuberculosis, forcing her parents to apply for visas so they can fly to the country and attend their daughter's funeral.

Her family said Ms Kaur's health had been rapidly deteriorating over recent month and she had "difficulty talking" and "no energy to do anything", as per Metro.

Authorities in Australia started the contact tracing the following day, and anyone identified as a potential risk is being notified.