Suing Carrier For Unspecified Damages

If you travel an airline in the US with checked baggage, on any given day, the chances your bag will be lost or damaged is a little over one-half of one percent. It's frustrating and aggravating to lose your clothes or toiletries... but what if the airline lost the remains of a deceased loved one?

Miguel Olaya, 60, would know. The Associated Press reports Olaya's wife passed away of pelvic cancer, and he says hired the DeRiso Funeral Home in Brooklyn to prepare and ship his wife's body to Guayaquil, Ecuador, on April 1. The mortuary chose American Airlines to ship the body.

Olaya is now suing the funeral home and American Airlines in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn, New York, because when he met the plane at the airport, his wife's remains were not onboard. It took American four days to find the body, and Olaya claims when it was returned to him, it was badly decomposed.

Christopher Robles, Olaya's lawyer, says the airline made matters worse with a run-around. "First they didn't know where her body was. Then they said maybe it was in Miami and finally they said it was in Guatemala," he said. "Instead of sending it on the flight to Guayaquil, American sent the body to Guatemala City."

Kathleen DeRiso, the funeral director, says someone at American confused airport identifiers and coded the shipment for delivery to GUA, for Guatemala City, when it should have been GYE, for Guayaquil. She also denied botching the embalming.

"It was not our error... there was no decomposition," DeRiso said.

American has declined comment due to the pending litigation. Olaya is seeking unspecified damages.

FMI: www.aa.com