Photo: nova.ie
A man from Australia packed up his entire family and boarded a flight to Ireland, for a memorial service that would see him scatter his parents’ ashes on the ground they’d been born. And then the ashes got lost on the way.
Bob Gilmour tells ABC Australia that his parents had been born in Ireland and England, so he wanted to honor their final wish and scatter their ashes in their home countries. He packed up his entire family for the memorial service: first in Ireland for his father, and then in England for his mother.
They boarded an Aer Lingus flight for Ireland and landed safely. They had placed the ashes separately in zip-lock bags sealed in Tupperware containers, as the airline policy states. Then, when they retrieved their luggage, the containers were nowhere to be seen.
“Mum and dad traveled in a double-zip-locked bag each, which were in a Tupperware container in the suitcase,” he says. “The protocol is the human ash has to be in a sealed container, but it has to be a container that can be opened by customs so they can check it's not heroin or crystal meth or whatever.”
“At first we weren't too worried because we had heard lots of stories about people losing their bags and then getting them back within 24 hours. But then the time started to drag on,” he adds.
For 5 more days, Gilmour kept pestering the airline with questions about the missing containers, and he would only get vague answers. The day planned for the memorial was nearing and he felt as if the entire journey had been in vain, since its very purpose had disappeared.
Hours before the service for his father, the containers showed up. Aer Lingus has apologized for the mishap, saying that the ashes were all this time at Malpensa Airport in Italy, and they hadn’t been loaded onto the Ireland flight by baggage handlers.
They boarded an Aer Lingus flight for Ireland and landed safely. They had placed the ashes separately in zip-lock bags sealed in Tupperware containers, as the airline policy states. Then, when they retrieved their luggage, the containers were nowhere to be seen.
“Mum and dad traveled in a double-zip-locked bag each, which were in a Tupperware container in the suitcase,” he says. “The protocol is the human ash has to be in a sealed container, but it has to be a container that can be opened by customs so they can check it's not heroin or crystal meth or whatever.”
“At first we weren't too worried because we had heard lots of stories about people losing their bags and then getting them back within 24 hours. But then the time started to drag on,” he adds.
For 5 more days, Gilmour kept pestering the airline with questions about the missing containers, and he would only get vague answers. The day planned for the memorial was nearing and he felt as if the entire journey had been in vain, since its very purpose had disappeared.
Hours before the service for his father, the containers showed up. Aer Lingus has apologized for the mishap, saying that the ashes were all this time at Malpensa Airport in Italy, and they hadn’t been loaded onto the Ireland flight by baggage handlers.
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