Marc Graas turned away by Luxair because of his father-in-law’s urn

When Marc Graas embarked on a trip to Iceland to bury his father-in-law’s ashes he never expected the journey to be so eventful, and that was before he even boarded the plane.

“Sometimes, the true face of a civilisation is revealed not in museums or libraries, but at the impersonal counter of an airport”, Graas told the Luxemburger Wort.

Graas and his wife had planned to fly from Luxembourg’s Findel airport to Iceland at the end of October.

The pair were carrying the ashes of Graas’ father-in-law – his wife’s father – in their suitcase, to bring him to his funeral, planned for the day after their arrival in Iceland.

The ashes of the deceased, who was originally from Iceland, had been placed in a metal urn and neatly packed into their suitcase.

Graas’ father-in-law had worked as an aircraft mechanic at Luxembourg’s freight carrier Cargolux.

But his last journey did not go according to plan.

Graas and his wife had not realised that metal urns are not permitted on Luxair flights.

“On Luxair flight[s], passengers can carry a funeral urn as cabin baggage […] [but the] urn cannot be of metallic nature due to screening purposes,” the airline says on its website.

As well as being in a metal urn the ashes of the native Icelander were in one of the checked suitcases.

Passengers cannot transport a metal urn with Luxair © Photo credit: Marc Graas

After reading a list of banned hold items at the check-in counter Graas presumed there would be no problem with transporting the urn in the suitcase.

Lists of items banned on flights included bombs, guns and knives, he told the Luxemburger Wort, assuming that urn would be allowed to travel.

Although he had a certificate from the funeral parlour, Luxair would not let him and his wife travel, Graas said.

“So we turned back; my wife, my father-in-law and I,” he said.

In a bid to get to the funeral in time the pair booked flights tickets for the next day.

This time they ditched the metal urn, and after brainstorming decided to transport the ashes in a box that had previously contained baking soda.

“New flight, same airport, same signs. Only this time, nobody noticed anything. I suppose people felt safe as long as the ashes were travelling under the guise of a household product,” said Graas.

Arriving in Iceland the couple decided that their father and father-in-law should not be buried in a box of old baking soda and instead bought a vase for the ashes.

“The funeral was beautiful, the sky clear and the family grateful,” said Graas.

“My father-in-law will never know that he made his last journey in a box of sodium bicarbonate,” he added.

The Luxembourg Times has contacted Luxair for comment.

(This article was originally published by the Luxemburger Wort. Machine translated, with editing and adaptation by Kate Oglesby.)