A Brampton, Ont. woman says her mother’s remains spent days in an unrefrigerated Miami warehouse after Air Canada allegedly failed to transfer them to a connecting flight on time.
“I’m livid,” Dion De Freitas told CTV Toronto. “Totally livid.”
De Freitas’ 63-year-old mother, Patricia Samuel, had been visiting her daughter and new grandchild from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent when she passed away in her sleep on July 6. Wanting to have her mother buried back home, De Freitas had a casket with her remains placed on an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Miami Monday morning in order to make a Tuesday morning connection to the island on Amerijet, an American cargo airline.
She says despite being in Miami for over 20 hours, the body never made the connecting flight. Samuel’s funeral had been scheduled for Saturday.
“I was told by the Amerijet agent that Air Canada did not hand over my mother’s body to them until 3:52 p.m. on Tuesday,” De Freitas claimed. “At that time, the Amerijet flight would have already landed in St. Vincent.”
According to De Freitas, her mother’s body then spent three days in an unrefrigerated warehouse.
“This is not just a bag that you’re leaving behind, OK?” De Freitas said. “This is somebody’s mother, grandmother, sister, auntie. You know, this is a person, even though she has passed on. You treat these people with respect.”
In a statement, an Air Canada spokesperson said the airline is doing everything it can to remedy the situation.
“When the remains unfortunately misconnected to the St. Vincent flight which only operates once weekly, we immediately made arrangements to transport the remains via a charter aircraft for which we would cover the cost,” the statement read. “However, Ms. De Freitas then instructed us to hold until the next direct flight (Tuesday) which we honoured. The remains currently are under our care in Miami in an appropriate facility.”
According to De Freitas, however, Air Canada only offered to reroute the body via New York last night. It is now expected to depart for St. Vincent Saturday morning.
De Freitas says that her mother’s funeral will now have to be postponed by a week.
“What if it was their mother?” she said. “How would they want their mother to be treated?”
With a report from CTV Toronto’s Austin Delaney
