Airline blunder as father is told of child’s death

Apr 5 2008 by Paul James, The Journal

A NORTH father whose family were stranded on the other side of the world was mistakenly told one of them had died by one of the world’s top airlines.

Chris Miller had been up all night waiting for news from his fiancee and two young children, whose Emirates flight home had been grounded in India after a passenger fell ill.

Partner Nicole Toole and their children Harry, one, and Victoria, three, had been on a trip to see a dying relative in Nicole’s native Australia.

Mr Miller had spoken to Nicole earlier on March 6 when she told him toddler Harry had developed chicken pox. Victoria had then contracted an infection and the three of them were being driven to a local hospital.

Mr Miller, 41, was waiting for news that night at home in Percy Gardens, Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, while unknown to him, the man who had fallen ill on the plane died.

At 7am, two hours after speaking to Nicole, 34, he answered a phone call from Emirates offering him a contact number for “the undertaker who is dealing with the body”.

Mr Miller, an information analysis manager, has received an apology from Emirates but has so far failed in his attempts to be compensated by the firm for a series of failings he alleges by airline staff.

He was given a complimentary return flight to be with his family, but because of Harry’s illness they weren’t cleared to fly home until March 17 – 10 days after the original flight was diverted.

Yesterday, Mr Miller said: “I told Nicole to keep her phone free in case of emergencies and that I would get the airline to ring me as soon as anything happened. I spent the next two hours in the house getting more and more worried.

“At 7am a woman phoned and said ‘I’ve got a couple of numbers for you. The first is the number of the undertaker who is dealing with the body’.

“The last I had heard was that my daughter was ill, my son was ill, my partner was in tears. I thought something terrible had happened. I started shouting down the phone and the woman put the phone down on me. It was the worst thing you could ever go through.”

Ten seconds later on that Friday morning the phone rang again and a different Emirates worker called to correct the mistake.

After getting a Visa in London on the Sunday, Mr Miller flew to Mumbai on the Monday and the family spent the following week in a hotel provided by their insurance company, until they were cleared to return to the North East together.

By that time the £1,600 trip had cost them an extra £900, but a request for compensation has been rejected by the airline.

Yesterday, an Emirates spokesman said: “Emirates has sincerely apologised to Mr Miller for his upsetting experience. We provided him with a complimentary return ticket to Mumbai so he could be re-united with his family.

“There were exceptional circumstances surrounding the flight from Melbourne which involved a young man being taken seriously ill on board and dying in tragic circumstances.

“It was a distressing period for both our staff and passengers. If our standards of service fell below our usual standards during this difficult time we can only once again apologise.”

Tragic journey

THE MAN who died after falling ill on the flight was Michael Edgeley, 22, from Penwortham, near Preston, Lancashire.

He was given emergency oxygen treatment by cabin crew on board Emirates flight EK407, travelling from Melbourne to Dubai, which made an emergency stop in Mumbai, India, so Mr Edgeley could be rushed to hospital.

But he died just minutes later in the back of an ambulance.

Mr Edgeley had boarded the Melbourne to Dubai flight which left Australia at 10.25pm on Thursday, March 6. He was due to get a connecting flight to Manchester.