A passenger has opened up about his experience sitting next to a 24-year-old who passed away suddenly before take-off.
On 20 June, 24-year-old student Manpreet Kaur boarded a Qantas flight from Melbourne, Australia, however, she passed away before the aircraft took off for its destination of Delhi, India.
Manpreet Kaur was on a Qantas flight from Melbourne (GoFundMe)
The culinary student’s friend, Gurdip Grewal, told the Herald Sun that Manpreet was traveling to see her family for the first time in over four years.
Manpreet had moved to Australia in March 2020 to chase her dreams of becoming a chef.
The friend said that Manpreet had been feeling ‘unwell’ prior to boarding the flight and when she got on the plane, she was ‘struggling to put her seatbelt on’.
They claimed: “Just before her flight started, she fell in front of her seat and died on the spot.”
And a passenger sitting next to Manpreet has since opened up about the tragedy.
The 24-year-old was on a Qantas plane (WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)
Fellow passenger Ravinder Singh told News.com.au when he took his seat next to Manpreet, he noticed ‘she began scrolling through photos on her mobile phone and stopped at a photograph of an elderly couple’.
“I asked if they were her parents. She smiled and nodded and kept staring at it,” he told the outlet.
However, when the plane was preparing for takeoff, Ravinder realized that something was wrong.
Manpreet had put her phone down and had ‘leaned forward to rest her head on the seat in front’.
Ravinder tried to alert Manpreet to ‘sit upright’ for takeoff and when the plane ‘jerked’ and she didn’t wake up, he called for help from cabin crew, and medical staff later evacuated the student from the plane.
Ravinder says the incident still ‘haunts him’ and will be ‘etched’ in his ‘memory for life’.
He resolved: “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.
“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.”
The Herald Sun reports that Manpreet’s cause of death was tuberculosis and Manpretty’s friend Gurdip has since started a GoFundMe to raise money in support of Manpreet’s family.
According to Ravinder, she fell forward onto the seat in front before takeoff (Jenny Evans/Getty Images)
The page reads: “Our dear friend Manpreet left us too soon, leaving a void in our lives that can never be filled.
“As we grieve her passing, we want to come together to honor her memory and support her family in their time of need.
“As we say our final goodbyes, every contribution, big or small, brings us closer to our goal. Your support means the world to us and Manpreet’s family.”
A Qantas spokesperson told news.com.au that the airline’s ‘thoughts are with [Manpreet’s] family and loved ones’.
UNILAD has contacted Qantas for comment.