CALGARY- Losing a family member is an extremely hard and emotional time, and there are many details to sort out including planning the funeral. However, that process was made much more difficult for a Calgary family, who says their father’s casket was badly damaged during an Air Canada flight.
Jared Schopp’s father passed away from cancer in Germany last month, and his body had to be transported back to Canada. Schopp paid a funeral home in Dusseldorf to prepare the body and ship it in a casket to Vancouver, so his father could be buried in Kelowna.
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However, when it arrived in Canada the casket was badly damaged and needed to be repaired before the funeral.
“It was frustrating, because obviously you knew it wasn’t handled properly and you just envision the worst if it was dropped,” Schopp says. “Was it just tossed around with a forklift?”
Air Canada maintains that the shipper only covered the casket with burlap, but the funeral home in Kelowna says that didn’t meet the airline’s own shipping standards and should not have been accepted.
“We have a protective covering over top of any casket that we do, and have a solid base because they’re using heavy equipment to move these caskets in and out of airplanes,” explains Ernie Hagel from McInnis & Holloway Funeral Homes. “They have to be in a rigid container.”
Air Canada initially refused to pay for any damage, blaming the shipper. However, after looking at their own guidelines the airline is now investigating and in discussions with the family about compensation.
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