Woman Says Airline Lost Her Husband's Ashes

Woman's journey to scatter her husband's ashes in their homeland is derailed after airline loses his remains, she says

Angeline O’Grady’s husband Brian died from cancer last October.

"He was a great guy -- he doesn't deserve this," O'Grady said.

On Nov. 1 she was on her way to England to scatter Brian's ashes in his hometown of Hull when the airline lost her husband’s remains, she says.

O'Grady says Transportation Security Administration officials who told her that she could not take her husband’s ashes, which were in a box, through airport security. Directed to go back to the US Airways counter, O’Grady put the ashes into her checked luggage and had a "Fragile" sticker put on the suitcase, she told NBC Philadelphia.

She got off the plane and drove to her sister-in-law's home in her husband's hometown.

"When I opened the baggage and everything the ashes weren't there," O'Grady said.

The Trumbauersville, Pa. woman says she contacted US Air and her son sent e-mails, but to no avail.

"We're no further along than the day I discovered they were missing on the second of November," O'Grady said.

According to e-mails provided by O'Grady's son, the airline received the correspondence and assigned the incident a case number. But the remains were still missing nearly three months after the family says they were lost and they were looking for closure.

"My kids, everybody's upset and yet US Air just blows us off," said O'Grady.

US Air told NBC10 they are continuing to investigate the matter and were working with the TSA to figure out what happened. They apologized to the O'Grady's.

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