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Bucks County Woman Sues US Airways Over Late Husband's Missing Ashes

By Justin Udo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Bucks County woman is suing US Airways, saying the airline lost the ashes of her dead husband while she was flying to England to honor his final wishes.

Angeline O'Grady's late husband Brian had a specific request for his wife before he lost his battle with cancer in 2011: he wanted to be back in their hometown of Hull, England.

"She feels that she failed to honor her husband's last request that his ashes be scattered along with his mother's," says Bill Goldman Jr., an attorney representing Mrs. O'Grady.

He says she checked her baggage for her US Airways flight to England but wanted to carry on the container with her husband's ashes.

At the security checkpoint, Goldman says, she was told she couldn't carry them on.  (Ashes are currently permitted as a carry-on item, so it is not clear why she was denied permission to bring them.)

Mrs. O'Grady, of Trumbauersville, Pa., returned to the baggage check desk, handed over the container with the ashes, and was told they would be checked along with her other baggage.

When she got to England, the ashes weren't with her other luggage.

"They obviously made the choice, through incompetence and outrageous behavior, to determine his last resting place," Goldman says.

He says that as part of their suit they are asking for an investigation to see just what happened.

Calls to US Airways were not immediately returned.

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