An Irishman has died while on holiday in Greece. He was then transferred in a coffin in the hold of an Aegean flight to Dublin, but the ground handling staff of the contracted service provider Swissport forgot to unload it, so the dead man was flown back to Athens.

The deceased certainly imagined the journey home from vacation differently, because he actually wanted to fly home as a normal passenger. Unfortunately, things turned out differently, because he died in Greece for an unspecified cause. The relatives then arranged for him to be taken home in a coffin. This was done in the hold of an Aegean scheduled flight.

It was a normal journey until landing in the Irish capital, albeit for a very sad reason. According to a report by the Irish Sunday Independent, just about everything that could go wrong in such a difficult situation went wrong after landing in Dublin. The commissioned handling company, Swissport, simply forgot to unload the coffin and hand it over to the undertaker, who was already waiting outside the security area. Some relatives are said to have waited at the hearse for their deceased family member.

The deceased then went on a journey to Greece again, because Aegean simply flew him back to Athens in his coffin. This had serious consequences, because the funeral that had already been organized had to be postponed because the dead person was simply not there. He was still or already back in Athens. Remarkably, the apron workers in Dublin are said to have simply "overlooked" the coffin. Since such "promotions" are not carried out every day and these are usually done carefully for reasons of piety, the depiction is rather weak.

Swissport admitted wrongdoing to the Irish newspaper and lobbied for the deceased to be taken home in his coffin the next day. This time he could really start his last journey. "We deeply regret what the family has experienced at this difficult time and have done everything possible to resolve the matter as quickly as possible. We are now conducting an urgent investigation to ensure lessons are learned,” the ground-handling company told the Irish Sunday Independent.