OK, technically this isn’t a road haulage question. I just wanted to get some feedback about any possible pitfalls. Last weekend, we lost a dear friend to cancer. Not unexpected, but the final descent was a lot quicker than expected, going from alert to passing in a couple of hours. The person is from Ireland, and they passed in England. No family here, but extensive family in Ireland so for financial reasons the plan is to hold a simple cremation here, then take the remains back to Ireland as carry on luggage on an airplane and hold a celebration of their life over there.
But is there likely to be any problems doing this? Are they permits or something that need to be had in advance? Any advice would be gratefully received.
Not much help but you’re doing a good thing by taking him your self
When I worked as a parcel van nutter on TNT twice I had collections for ashes from funeral directors [emoji49][emoji49][emoji49][emoji49][emoji49]
Firstly, Sorry for your loss. No problem with a box/urn of ashes in hand luggage. link here scattering-ashes.co.uk/help-adv … ith-ashes/ a full coffin/body on the other hand is all sorts of trouble
a short story
A friend from NI whom I knew from the campsite at the Faro bike rally was living over here, 2yrs ago died in the spare room of a (Portuguese) friend in Nottingham, the only family he had was a brother who lived in Switzerland. However he had friends scattered across Europe (ROI, UK, Spain, Portugal etc) His Brother asked for assistance is putting together a plan to give him a send off to remember.
So the funeral was held in Nottingham with friends from across the Uk in attendance, and the funeral broadcast on the internet from the crematorium for those who couldn’t attend. His ashes where split up into 2 containers, 1 was taken back to N.Ireland and the other was taken to Faro in Portugal.
Both containers where taken as part of hand luggage, the only thing done was to tell the security staff at the airport that the container contains human remains and can they be respectful. The Portuguese half was actually carried though the airport l in a rucksack and we buried his ashes at the spot where we camp at Faro. So every time we meet and party he is with us
I’ve left driving for good now and work in security at Birmingham Airport.
There’s no problems in carrying ashes with your hand luggage. The bag will get pulled for a check because it’s a “powder” but we just have to check the documentation that you will get with them and confirm that they are actually ashes.
I was a Funeral Director for 15 years. All you need is the cremation certificate that will be with the ashes from the Crem. Also inform the airline you will have cremated remains. You could also ask the FD for a declaration as to contents of the urn, however to Ireland, it’s not really needed . You will have a death certificate as well which is further proof you’re not doing owt dodgy. Take as hand luggage, no chance of ashes getting lost that way. Hope that helps
There was a family from Surrey who decided to spend their vacation in France, taking their elderly grandma with them. Granny spent all their stay complaining. Well, not quite all of it, because a little way into the holiday, she died on them. Deciding that the old woman would hate not to be buried in her beloved Blighty, the family set about returning her home, and, mindful of the customs and other problems they might face, they resolved to hide her. So they bought a cheap bit of carpet and rolled the old lady up in it. Granny’s body was by now too stiff to bend on to a car seat, so they had to strap her on the roof-rack. In this way, she was driven across France for two days, through driving rain and baking sunshine, across the Channel by ferry, and finally back to dear old Blighty. Unhappily, having made it that far without a hitch, the family were devastated when, after stopping at an MSA for a well-earned cuppa, they went outside to find the car stolen — carpet, Granny and all.
I just put Mr Albion in a bag in my handbag when I took him to Jersey to be scattered. Handbag on the cxray conveyor and the operator just leant across and said, ashes? I said yes, and off we went…
hello young lady, how’s retirement suiting you…?
you say you took mr albion to jersey, what a wonderful place to scatter. we are going later this year again, love it especialliy plemont bay as long as you catch the tide right…
p.s don’t try the coke thing, too many sniffer dogs…
m.a.n rules:
hello young lady, how’s retirement suiting you…?
you say you took mr albion to jersey, what a wonderful place to scatter. we are going later this year again, love it especialliy plemont bay as long as you catch the tide right…
p.s don’t try the coke thing, too many sniffer dogs…
Thanks for the young . Just as I thought there was an option on making a bit of extra money - back to the drawing board.
Not quite finished, though I only did ten hours last week. Honestly, I can’t get my head around the amount of time I have to do things, it’s wonderful!
Plemont is lovely, but most of the bays are. Mr A is at St Brelades as he liked a good beach and lunch on the terrace at L’Horizon. Got me thinking I might take another trip back. Enjoy your holiday!
Just a word of caution, back in the 1970’s my dad died here in England and we assumed we could bury his ashes in the family plot in Scotland only to find an English death certificate wasn’t valid for this. In the end we scattered him along the shore he grew up near but it wasn’t what mum had wanted.
albion:
I just put Mr Albion in a bag in my handbag when I took him to Jersey to be scattered. Handbag on the cxray conveyor and the operator just leant across and said, ashes? I said yes, and off we went…
Often wondered if that’s the way to ship cocaine
Ashes look more like the colour of raw Heroine than Coke though. I always wondered if the colour came from “Coffin and all” - but I’ve often been informed that crematoriums these days - take the body out, stick it in a cardboard box (a bit like the opening scene of “Avatar”) and re-cycle the coffin?
I would imagine that scanning devices are used at port of entries - looking out for that now unpopular “one-time-use plastic” bag that one might hide some Class A powder in amongs the ashes… It is a bit of a tall order to expect some future customer to snort that no-longer-white powder “all mixed in” otherwise eh?
Many years ago my father was involved in an official capacity with shipping a body from Africa back to England. Apart from the very strict paperwork, the body had to be sealed in a lead-lined coffin; you can imagine how much that weighed. He had quite a job to find a suitably skilled plumber.
. Just as I thought there was an option on making a bit of extra money - back to the drawing board. 