US airlines have been hitting the headlines for their bad behaviour, but the the most recent story will make you think twice about checking in your baggage ever again.
A woman is reportedly suing American Airlines for US $10 million (£7.7 million) after they checked in her carry-on luggage against her will and then lost it — along with her dead daughter’s ashes.
Iddy Pierre-Canel was flying back to Tucson, Arizona, from Baltimore, Maryland, after her daughter’s, Carm-Idrelle Casseus, funeral and cremation on March 5, NBC’s 12 News reports.
According to Ms Pierre-Canel’s lawyer, Lorraine Morey, an American Airlines employee insisted twice that Ms Pierre-Canel check in her bag while waiting at the gate, even though she made it clear she was carrying her daughter’s ashes.
She then allegedly remembers an employee picking her bags up, but she said she was under the impression they were helping her take the bags to her seat since she was distraught and had been crying.
Ms Pierre-Canel said: “When the plane took off, that’s when I realised I didn’t have my bag [and] they said, ‘Oh, they checked your bag in.’”
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Ms Morey said her client was then promised her bags would be the first off the plane.
But a spokesman for American Airlines insists the airline staff were not aware of the luggage’s contents.
A spokesperson told 12 News: “Had we known there were cremated ashes in the bag, we would have had her remove them or found a place for the bag.
“We apologised for losing the items and certainly are very sorry for her terrible loss.”
The airline also claimed that the urn was not included on an itemised list of what was in the bag.
There was an estimated $24,000 (£18,500) worth of belongings in the suitcase, but no urn was mentioned.
Ms Morey said the urn was not included because there was no way to assign a dollar value to her daughter’s remains, but said there was an extensive email train showing the main concern was for that urn.
Nineteen days after American Airlines lost the luggage, they found the bag and returned it to Ms Pierre-Canel.
She said: “I went through it. I was screaming. I was hurt. I wanted to die, because I felt that I failed my child.
“I failed her, because my child did not die just once. I lost her twice.”
She said her daughter’s wish was to have her ashes “spread across the sea in Hawaii, the South of France, off the coast of Venice, Italy and off the coast of Australia.”
According to 12 News, Ms Pierre-Canel is currently involved in another lawsuit with Boston Mutual Life Insurance, but she is defending herself against allegations of fraud.
Ms Morey does not represent Ms Pierre-Canel in the life insurance lawsuit but said her client has nothing to hide.
Just last week, American Airlines were hit with another passenger lawsuit.
Australian Michael Anthony Taylor is demanding £77,000 in damages, claiming he was crushed by two overweight passengers on either side of him on the flight.
He says he was refused permission by the airline to move seats, leaving him with permanent back and neck injuries.
This article originally appeared on news.com.au.