Urn lost on Ryanair flight is returned to widow

THE cremated remains of a man which went missing on a Ryanair flight from Cork to Gatwick have been returned to his family.

Yesterday, Ryanair personnel located the urn containing the man’s remains.

Eileen Grufferty had travelled from Australia to Ireland with the urn containing the ashes of her husband Jack.

Some of the ashes were scattered in a ceremony at Croagh Patrick, and the remainder were to be buried in Epsom, Surrey, last week. But the urn went missing en route to the British airport.

Yesterday, Ryanairconfirmed that the ashes had been found and would be returned to Ms Grufferty.

Members of Ms Grufferty’s family said she had been traumatised by the events.

Ms Grufferty, 69, originally from Cork but living in Melbourne for 38 years, checked in the ashes at Cork Airport. She believed she would not be allowed to carry them on board the flight due to increased security measures.

The woman’s husband died on July 26, 2005, some weeks after he had been diagnosed with cancer.

“Eileen travelled from Australia to Singapore, Singapore to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Cork and all her luggage came with her. Then she goes from Cork to London and it disappears,” her brother Noel Gregg, who lives in Cork, said.

Ms Grufferty travelled to Cork last month to spend some time with her family and for the ceremony at Croagh Patrick before travelling to Epsom.

She placed her husband’s ashes in her luggage last Monday morning and checked them in at the Ryanair desk at Cork Airport.

When she got off the flight at Gatwick she went to the carousel to retrieve her bag and discovered it was missing.

She was then forced to fill in various paperwork and stayed at the airport for two-and-a-half hours hoping the urn would turn up.

Ryanair said Ms Grufferty would have been allowed bring the ashes on board as hand luggage.