Family of the deceased Irish citizen were left waiting at airport as body was accidentally returned to Greece.
An investigation has been launched at Dublin Airport after a coffin containing a deceased Irish national was accidentally flown back to Greece.
The coffin had been transported to Dublin after the man died while in Greece, but somehow ground services at the airport failed to remove it from the aircraft on arrival in the Irish capital, despite the man’s family waiting with a hearse. The incident was reported as a ‘misload’ with the coffin not being spotted and removed from the flight.
The scheduled flight then returned to Greece with the coffin still onboard, the handling company involved organising repatriation the following day with another airline.
The company responsible for airport ground services at Dublin, Swissport, issued an apology to the man’s family, who were forced to rearrange the funeral following the delay.
A statement from Swissport read: “We are deeply sorry for the family’s experience at such a difficult time and did everything we could to ensure things were resolved as quickly as possible.
“We are now conducting an urgent investigation to make sure lessons are learned.”
