British Family Accused Of Smuggling Dead Body Onto Flight By Claiming Grandma Was 'Just Tired'

We don't like to think about it, but one of the unfortunate realities of flying is that, sometimes, people die mid-flight. It's just a law of large numbers thing. In fact, it happens often enough that every airline has policies in place for dealing with it when it happens. That said, unless we're talking about bodies being shipped home for funerals, airlines strongly prefer it if everyone is at least alive when they board their flight. You'd think I wouldn't have to say that, and yet, the Daily Mail reports a British family allegedly just got caught breaking that one simple rule.

The good news is, they didn't carve Grandma up and try to smuggle her into the country in their carry-ons. I'm not going to pretend that what they're accused of doing wasn't morbid, but at least it wasn't that morbid. No, they simply (allegedly) stuck the 89-year-old woman's corpse in a wheelchair, pretended she was still alive, and tried to explain her deadness away by telling the easyJet crew she was "just tired." So think "Weekend at Bernie's" more than "Reacher." Still icky, just not that icky.

What's especially crazy about this story, though, is that they didn't just get the woman's (alleged) corpse onto the plane. They actually managed to (allegedly) keep up the ruse long enough for the plane to begin taxiing down the runway. Unfortunately for the family, right before the plane took off, the flight crew realized she was actually dead and insisted the plane return to the gate to offload the dead body. You know, like you'd hope they'd do in a situation like that. 

So, on the one hand, great news — they caught the corpse before takeoff. But some of the passengers may have found themselves secretly wishing the crew hadn't noticed, because the flight ended up being delayed by 12 hours. Not fun. 

But how did no one realize the dead woman in the wheelchair wasn't actually alive? Well, if you ask easyJet, the angry passengers are wrong, and the family didn't actually do anything wrong. Because, according to easyJet, the woman was still alive when she boarded but died between boarding and takeoff. Ultimately, we may never know exactly when she finally passed away, so proving that the family smuggled a dead body on board will probably be difficult. Either way, though, you also probably shouldn't fly if you're literally standing on death's doorstep. 

Five family members were also reportedly traveling with her as a group, which would have made it a little easier to keep up the ruse versus only having one or two family members around. One passenger also reported hearing one of them tell the gate agent, "It's okay. We're doctors." Another passenger told the Daily Mail it sure looked like the woman was dead before she boarded the plane:

She said from the first moment she saw the woman, who was in a wheelchair and wearing a neck brace, supported by a neck pillow, she knew she 'wasn't with us'.

But Ms Rowland said before boarding: 'Her family were trying to wake her up and saying, "Can you hear me? We're going to get on the flight now, we're going to board now", and trying to give her something to drink...

'They were talking to her and acting as if she was alive.'

And she explained when the plane turned back to the terminal, and paramedics rushed onboard: 'None of the family seemed upset or like they were panicking, they weren't crying or shocked – they were completely calm and talking to the paramedics.'

The good news is, once easyJet let the still-living passengers back on the plane, it gave all of them a free snack and hot drink. And some people say customer service is dead.