Father wrongly told of air death

An airline has apologised for wrongly telling a father a member of his family had died during a long-distance trip.

Chris Miller of Whitley Bay, Tyneside, was told a flight carrying his partner and children had landed in India because another passenger was ill. Mr Miller's partner Nicole Toole, 34, and children, Harry aged one and Victoria aged three, were on their way back from a visit to Australia.

But when the other passenger died, Emirates contacted Mr Miller in error. The airline said its staff had been distressed by the exceptional events.



Mr Miller said he had received a call from someone saying: "I have a couple of numbers for you, the first number is the undertakers dealing with the body. At that point I believed one of my family was dead. I said, 'What happened, what's going on?' but they put the phone down on me.

"I ended up sitting in a state of utter disbelief and shock, my whole life was falling apart. Then after 10 seconds they rang again to say it was a mistake."

Mr Miller was given a complimentary ticket to see his family but said that was not enough to compensate for the trauma. In a statement Emirates said: "We have sincerely apologised to Mr Miller for his upsetting experience."