The family of a Nigerian lady, Ms. Remilekun Toyosi Meshioye, a passenger who died onboard Egypt Air flight MS 876 on Monday while on a connecting flight into Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom has slammed the airline and the Egyptian authorities.
According to the family, Toyosi was disrespectfully treated and called on the federal government to investigate the circumstances leading to her death while in custody of Egypt Air.
The late Nigerian, whose UK visa indicated that she had a student work permit, was to connect London Heathrow via Cairo on Tuesday September 5 aboard Egypt Air flight MS 777 after passing the night in the country upon arrival on Monday, September 4, however, did not arrive her destination after the airline deposited her corpse in a morgue in Cairo.
Toyosi’s family are miffed at the attitude of the airline for not informing them of her death for days after the incident only for them to receive information from the Egyptian Consular Office in Cairo informing them of her death.
The 43-year-old Nigerian’s travel itinerary seen by our correspondent showed that she travelled aboard a Boeing 737-800 on the first leg of the journey to Cairo while a Boeing 777-300 was to convey her and others to London from the Egyptian capital.
A relative of Toyosi who is based in Leed, UK, Mrs. Olufunmilola Olaniyi-Alabi,
who spoke via WhatsApp call to Blueprint in Lagos, expressed shock at the inability of the airline to contact the family.
““We called EgyptAir customer care and all other contact phone details on their website but no response all through Wednesday and when the phone was picked they quickly cut it. It was only once that a man picked the call that we put through to Egypt Air Region Office in London and he said the London office is not aware of what happened and they don’t have information to share with us.
“So, we were left with no choice, but to report to the UK Police Department on Wednesday and they later confirmed to us that our sister was not in the UK. They advised us to contact Cairo or Lagos airports.
“We contacted the agent who sold the ticket to her and the agent sent us proof that she did not board the plane going to Heathrow from Cairo,” she said.
She said the family was yet to come to grips with the news of the death of their daughter, adding: “Thank you for contacting us. We are shocked and greatly displeased with the attitude of Egypt Air. The Nigerian government must not allow a citizen of our country to be treated this way by any nation and be allowed to go like that. We demand justice and investigation from the Nigeria authority.”
