Soldiers body flies with baggage on Northwest Airlines.

[shaniqua6392]

This is how the Bush Administration treats our heroes who have died in his war.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061130/NEWS01/611300369
There is also a video available on cnn.com
on edit: I guess I should have titled the OP something like: Mom upset at treatment of her DEAD soldier son...No wonder I hardly ever post anything. Yikes. Something got lost in the translation. Next time I will just be quietly upset when one of my fellow soldiers gets the shaft. My bad.

[xultar]

1. I hate to say it but where else can it go if they are using a commercial carrier?

My mom worked for a commercial carrier. They took great care of caskets but they did fly in the baggage compartment.

[Bluebear]

2. They put the casket in a BAGGAGE CART!

The person who complained was upset that there was no hearse waiting for the dead soldier. His mother speaks:

"If that's what that lady saw, I'm outraged. I'm really upset, because my son died for this country," said Betty Tidwell, who lives in Tennessee. "He gave all he had to this country. And for them to do that to him, that just upsets the hell out of me."


======

The U.S. Army today is looking into the handling of a soldier's casket at the Greater Rochester International Airport, after a witness last month said she saw the casket put in a baggage cart with other luggage.

Northwest Airlines, on which the casket was flown, said in a statement tonight that a military escort stood at attention as three airline agents transferred the casket from the aircraft to an empty cart, then closed the privacy curtains. Northwest said it complied with all military and airline procedures.

“All Northwest employees have the deepest respect for the sacrifices that members of the Armed Service have made, and work diligently to see that they and their families are shown the respect, care and compassion they so richly deserve,” the statement read.

"We are looking into the circumstances now," Army spokesman Lt. Col. Kevin Arata said in an email statement. "The Army is always concerned with treating all of our fallen comrades' remains with the utmost dignity and respect."
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061130/NEWS01/611300369

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. What's the SOP?

Transporting bodies by airplane is a semi-common practice. I've never seen a hearse driving around an airport shuttling caskets to and fro.

[Bluebear]

11. First search on the google . . .

'The day was also an emotional day for the Port Arthur Police Department. Officers served as pall bearers, removing Reynolds' casket from the airplane in Houston and placing it into the hearse. Patrol cars from several law enforcement agencies then escorted the hearse to Port Arthur.'


http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/statenews/cnhinsall_story_278083220.html

[MrCoffee]

15. My understanding is that there should be an honor guard and hearse

for military caskets, based solely on various times i've seen delivery of the casket on different local news.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

22. That would be the Army's responsibility would it not?

[MrCoffee]

23. i would assume so.

i really don't know, but it would only make sense for the Army to arrange all that.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. It's unfortunate that Northwest Airlines is taking the blame.

Not that I'm a happy Northwest customer.

[xultar]

40. Why are you yelling @ me. You mean the baggage carousel. The OP

made it seem as if they were upset the body flew as baggage.

It's not my fault the OP mis posted their concerns.

[Rosemary2205]

3. I've been on one of these flights.

It was on Delta. There were military escorts for the body on the plane and the passengers were held on the plane while the soldier's casket was removed from the hold. I could see the whole thing out the plane window and have to say it was VERY respectful and dignified.

[LA lady]

4. Where did you expect them to fly?

My family hasn't lost a service member since WWII (they were sent by train in the baggage compartment) but we have had family members transported and they were in the baggage compartment. The airlines do their best to treat them with respect.

[Bluebear]

6. The OP title is incorrect. Mom is upset because of the ground handling.

See post above, they put his casket on a baggage cart.

[elehhhhna]

29. They popped it out of the hold onto the conveyor belt thingy. Nice.

Lucky they didn't lose or drop the box.

[MrCoffee]

5. bodies fly in baggage all the time. n/t

[Bluebear]

8. Mom said a hearse should have been waiting for him.

They drove his casket around in a baggage tug.

[MrCoffee]

9. that's absolutetly right, and i'd be pissed as hell too...

i missed all that in the OP, which is less than clear.

[Warpy]

14. Perhaps non airport vehicles of any type (except fire engines

and ambulances) were prohibited.

[hedgehog]

10. I think the concern for the dead body is displaced anger at the

fact that they've lost a son!

[Warpy]

12. What were they gonna do, give the corpse a SEAT?

Honestly, folks, if the family wants the body buried in the family plot instead of in a military cemetery FAR AWAY, the body flies cargo.

This isn't as bad as it sounds, in other words. The body was treated with the same respect any of us would get if we died far from home and had to be transported back. The only difference here was the flag on the container.

[Bluebear]

13. Please read some of the responses. nt

[MrCoffee]

17. you might think about editing the OP

it would clear up some things.

[Bluebear]

18. It's not my OP, I can't edit it. nt

[MrCoffee]

20. you'd think i'd have noticed that...

my bad.

[Bluebear]

21. :)

[riderinthestorm]

16. There's a picture of a soldier's casket on a forklift at O'Hare

the parents are standing in the baggage area weeping as the machine operator is apparently trundling it from point A to point B, and there isn't a military escort in sight. It was an AP photo that I pulled off of AOL - not somebody's home photo that made it onto the internets.

I printed it and sent it to Henry Hyde (my Congressman :puke: ) and there never was any response.

It's disrespectful to put it in a baggage cart or on a forklift. There's enough people around to handle the casket appropriately and we aren't at the point yet that that many dead soldiers are coming home that they can't be personally handled better.

[shaniqua6392]

19. They are not supposed to be put on a baggage cart!!

There should be a hearse there to take the coffin to the funeral home. Also, they are supposed to be accompanied every step of the way with a Color Guard which consists of at least two soldiers. This was disrespectful no matter how you look at it. It was not done properly. I know that they have to fly down in the airplane baggage compartment, but the rest of it was bull crap. The fact that his mother was upset should tell us something. She did not say she was upset he died in this stupid war. She just said she was upset at the disrespect shown her son when he gave his life for his country. Enough said.

[xultar]

33. You are right not on the baggage carousel. Your post title is misleading.

You seemed to concerned that he flew as baggage not about the fact that there was no hearse there to meet the body. Your post title is misleading.

The mom is really upset and that he ended up on the baggage carousel not flew as baggage.

Your title indicated you were upset that the body flew as baggage. Bodies fly as baggage all the time.

[rman]

25. Rumsfeld's ghost: war on the cheap

[shance]

26. Certainly a good way to condition Americans by seeing bodies as baggage.

A great conditioning/desensitizing technique, along with the good ole boys flying our boys and girls back on the cheap and observed as baggage.

[pooja]

27. Was the casket in transit, ie, switching planes at a hub...

if so, then what would you use a hearse for. I thought only at last stop was the whole shebang needed.

[Bluebear]

28. It was in Rochester NY, hometown of the soldier. nt

[Dorian Gray]

30. I agree that it feels sort of disrespectful

but unless they are going to fly them the whole way home on a military plane, that's how dead bodies are transported. It's not nice to think about, but I don't know what else they could have done.

[Bluebear]

36. Have a hearse meet the flight.

If you read some of the responses, you will see that the objection is that they loaded him on a baggage trolley.

[cynatnite]

31. This would never have happened if there had been media coverage...

As there should have been from the beginning. Then again, seeing the flag-draped caskets coming home would probably have turned the tide against the war a hell of a lot sooner and this young man might have been alive.

What a tragic loss. :(

[MrCoffee]

32. Re: your edit

yes, you should have been clearer in your OP. why shouldn't people question something that doesn't make any sense? an earlier edit might have helped.

[xultar]

35. No kidding. But they'd rather stomp off and not edit for clarity.

[dogday]

34. When my mom died, we had to fly her that way

It is the only way to get her back to where she wanted to be buried... It sounds bad, but it is necessary to move a casket and a body.....

[Bluebear]

37. No, you can move a body off the plane into a hearse

without using a baggage trolley, that is what the objection was.

[dogday]

39. That is a shame..... We had arrangements made

and one was waiting.... I can't begin to tell you how bad I feel for this woman as I hug my Son who just got back from Iraq. I am so fortunate and blessed he came home alive and not like this poor woman's son.....

[MorningGlow]

38. My city, my airport--which has been awful lately

I just went there for the first time in a long time to meet my brother (living) coming in for Thanksgiving. I couldn't believe what they did to the place in the interest of "homeland security". The waiting area for meeting arriving travelers is about the size of a postage stamp. (I am NOT kidding.) The teeny space is cut off from the rest of the airport by bulletproof glass (including the area with the shops and restaurants--real smart--who's going to shop and eat, the travelers who just want to make their plane, or the people waiting around?) (Important digression: DH almost immediately started banging on the glass with both fists, shouting "Elaaaaiiinnneee!"--of course--things like this is why I married him :) .)

Seriously, though, I don't know who's in charge there now, but they are making some downright stupid decisions about how to run the place. I am so ashamed that extends to the treatment of our fallen soldiers. :blush: