Curiosity
Woman Sues Airline For Losing Husbands Ashes (PHOTO)
Angeline O’Grady, right, and her late husband, Brian O’Grady, on their wedding day. Courtesy O’Grady Family
Philadelphia, PA – What started out as a journey to achieve closure in the loss of her husband to cancer has instead turned into an ordeal. In 2011, Angeline O’Grady traveled from Philadelphia to England aboard a US Airways flight where she was set to attend a memorial service with her late husband’s relatives and together scatter his ashes in the same area where his mother’s remains had been scattered several months earlier. All of this was done to honor his final wishes.
However, upon arriving in England, Mrs. O’Grady was not able to locate her husband’s ashes. In the two years that have followed, she has not been able to locate an answer from US Airways either.
“When I opened the baggage and everything the ashes weren’t there,” she told NBC10. “My kids, everybody’s upset and yet US Airways just blows us off. He was a great guy – he doesn’t deserve this.”
US Airways spokesman Andrew Christie said they conducted an “internal” investigation and they too were unable to locate an answer as to what happened to Mr. O’Grady’s ashes except to conclude they are not responsible for the loss.
“While we certainly send our condolences to Mrs. O’Grady, US Airways’ investigation into this matter did not uncover any information indicating that US Airways is responsible for this unfortunate incident,” Todd Lehmacher, a spokesman for US Airways, told ABCNews.com in a written statement. “We, of course, will defend ourselves against the suit.”
Her attorney Bill Goldman Jr told CBS: “She feels that she failed to honour her husband’s last request that his ashes be scattered along with his mother’s.”
He said ashes are allowed in hand luggage, so it was not clear why officials told her they had to be put in the hold.
“They obviously made the choice, through incompetence and outrageous behaviour, to determine his last resting place,” he said.
Since reporting the disappearance, she says the company hasn’t been helpful in trying to recover it.
‘My kids, everybody’s upset and US Air just blows us off,’ she told WCAU in January 2012.
It is an interesting conclusion by the airline that supposedly was the only handler of his ashes during the transatlantic flight. Mrs. O’Grady has not given up on her quest to resolve the matter and has filed a $200,000 lawsuit to force the airline to accept responsibility and give her satisfactory answers.
Where did it go? When she arrived at her sister-in-law’s house in Hull, England, Mrs O’Grady opened her luggage and the box of her husband’s ashes was mysteriously missing
On The Web:
Woman sues airline for losing husbands ashes
http://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-sues-us-airways-answers-loss-husbands-ashes/story?id=20319973
Woman sues airline for losing husbands ashes
http://news.sky.com/story/1144132/us-airways-woman-sues-for-losing-ashes
