Labeling of packages and proper documentation when shipping on a commercial airline is important. But most people don’t think it’s something you should lose your head over. Oh they’re wrong.
Case in point, Arkansas based company JLS Consulting which was making a shipment of human remains on a Southwest Airlines flight to the Fort Worth office of Medtronic, a medical and technology research company based in Minnesota. JLS probably didn’t realize that Southwest Airlines has listed the process for shipping 40 to 60 human heads and it’s available for download from that internet thingy.
JLS Consulting is a company that specializes in shipping human remains to medical research firms. Apparently, the market for remains transport is quite lucrative and business is up. Coupled with their sister company specializing in anatomical gift donations, most likely named Remains R Us, they’ve got the market on body parts cornered.
Bags fly free, not body parts
When Southwest cargo handlers didn’t get an answer from the courier delivering the boxes as to what was in them, they opened them up. Once the shrieking stopped, Southwest notified the local authorities who notified the coroner (who notified the spider who wiggled, jiggled and tickled inside her). When contacted, JLS explained this was all a silly mistake and promptly blamed the courier who delivered the heads to Southwest. Fearing a black market run on American body parts (because, come on, we all know that’s happening), the local corner is launching a full investigation.
Meanwhile, Medtronic is still waiting for their heads. The heads were to be used for physician training, so when you complain that your Ear, Nose & Throat Doctor doesn’t know squat, you may be right.
Lesson Learned: If you’re going to ship human remains, whether it’s a deceased family member or a bag of heads of the family you murdered a few months ago, proper documentation and packaging is a must. It’s probably best to leave it to the experts (funeral homes are probably your best bet) or at least to use a company who is aware of how to do their job – usually if you use the word consultant in your business’s name, you should be the expert on how to get the job done.
