Lawsuits: American Airlines Loses Wife's Corpse For 4 Days

It’s one thing if American Airlines loses your baggage, but what about your wife’s body? What do you do then? One Brooklyn man was faced with this grim dilemma when he arranged to have his wife’s body flown to their home in Ecuador after she passed away from pelvic cancer. American Airlines lost the body, and it went unrefrigerated for 4 days, according to the New York Post.

According to the lawsuit, filed last week, the body of 57-year-old Teresa Olaya was so badly decomposed when it finally arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador, that her grieving husband, Miguel, had to forgo a traditional open-casket funeral.

“During those days, a thousand things went through my mind,” Olaya, 60, told The Post. “Where is she? Is she dumped somewhere like an animal? And I had no answers for my daughter. She would ask me, ‘Where is my mami?’ “

It gets even more grim. After being given the runaround by AA for several days, the casket finally arrived at it’s destination. Miguel was relieved… until he opened the casket…

“When I opened the casket, it was a terrible shock,” said Olaya. “I still can’t get it out of my mind”

“They treated the body like a piece of baggage,” said lawyer Christopher Robles, who said his client was seeking an unspecified seven-figure sum. “They didn’t keep it refrigerated.”

AA said it couldn’t comment because of the pending lawsuit.

AIRLINE ‘LOSES’ CORPSE [NYP] (Thanks, Trish!)
(Photo: Charliux )

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