'Excess' baggage was a corpse

Baggage handlers were shocked to find a body in a jet cargo hold after the pilot forgot to mention it was there.

A passenger believed to be in his 80s had suffered a suspected heart attack on the flight to Birmingham from Delhi in India.

The man, from Bradford, was pronounced dead after an emergency stop at Bucharest and his body was placed in the hold of the Air India Boeing 777. When the jet landed at Birmingham on Saturday the Russian pilot went off to his hotel without reporting it.

Baggage handlers later discovered the body in a plastic casket among the luggage — and immediately called police.

Christmas travellers were delayed for hours as an investigation began and the pilot was arrested on a charge of causing a public nuisance.