A grieving family in Tennessee claims that Delta Air Lines left their father's body unrefrigerated overnight due to a missed connection at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). It is claimed that the body then arrived in Memphis too late to be processed due to a delay at the Delta hub.
After missing the cutoff time for processing in Memphis, it is alleged that the body was left overnight without refrigeration and decomposed too much to permit a final viewing for the family. The incident involved Ed Morgan, who was being transported from Florida to Tennessee, through Atlanta. The incident occurred through an arrangement with Eagle Wings Air, which coordinates transportation of human remains.
According to an Action News 5 report, Mr Morgan's body was booked to travel on June 15 from West Palm Beach (DJT) through Atlanta (ATL) to Memphis International Airport (MEM). Requirements state that human remains must have a two-hour transfer window in Atlanta. However, due to a late arrival on the Atlanta-bound flight, it fell short of the two-hour requirement before its next flight to Memphis.
Despite this connecting flight being delayed, the connection window would still have falled below the two-hour threshold by just two minutes, resulting in Morgan being rebooked onto a later flight. This saw the body reach Memphis after 8:00 PM that evening, and cargo pickup had already closed at 7:00 PM.
The family now alleges that the body remained unrefrigerated overnight, resulting in body decomposition that forced the cancellation of a final viewing. According to the report, Morgan's body had not been embalmed due to spiritual reasons.
In a report by View From The Wing, the Memphis Delta station claimed that the cooler was working and available; however, the facility did not permit overnight holding of human remains.
This has raised questions about the process for body collections. With the original itinerary, the Memphis arrival would have been at 4:49 PM, which would have allowed the family more than two hours to collect Morgan's body by 6:49 PM. Moving Morgan's body to the later flight forced the remains to arrive after 8:00 PM, which was beyond the closing time of the cargo facility.
There is conflicting information on what occurred when the body arrived, with Delta suggesting that there was a chiller on site. However, other sources claim that the body was not refrigerated overnight, and by the time the funeral director came to assess the body, Mr Morgan's remains had decomposed beyond what would be acceptable for a final family viewing.
After delaying a flight four hours, bees resting on the wing of a Delta Air Lines aircraft finally buzzed off when the aircraft moved.
Eagle Wings Air has since refunded the Morgan family for the incident and apologized. Morgan was a big fan of drag racing, and despite being unable to have a final viewing, a final trip around a drag strip was possible before he was finally laid to rest next to his wife.
Morgan was not embalmed due to spiritual reasons and a personal request from Morgan. Delta was aware of this decision before the transportation of his body, and embalming is not a prerequisite for the airline to transport remains. Details of the airline's specialized care program for funeral shipments are detailed in the table below, as per the airline's website:
Cremated remains accepted. Non-cremated remains can be embalmed, combination, or casketed. Un-embalmed remains must be shipped in a sealed casket
Signed certificate of death, burial permit, and burial removal permit required by state law
