Airport security 'spills woman's ashes into grieving son's luggage'
A man is suing America's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) after an urn carrying his mother's ashes was allegedly spilled in his luggage by an airport security agent at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
Shannon Thomas, from Ohio, was planning on scattering his mother's ashes in the Caribbean Sea.
He alleges that when TSA agents searched through his luggage, his mum's ashes were tossed around his clothes and suitcase, New York Daily News reports.
A $750,000 (£469,000) law suit has been filed, which requests a jury trial and claims that TSA agents "negligently, carelessly, and recklessly replaced the lid of the urn, placed a bag inspection notice in Plaintiff's suitcase, and sent the bag on its way."
Lawyers say that Mr Thomas, who was travelling to Puerto Rico, did not receive an apology.
According to the Daily Mail, they say he suffered "severe and persistent emotional distress and mental anguish when he saw that the urn had been opened and the remains of his mother spilled on his clothing and interior of his suitcase."
TSA rules state that agents must never open urns with remains inside them. If they are suspicious about their contents they should bar them from the flight rather than try to open them themselves.
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