As death of Remilekun aboard Egypt Air causes uproar

THE family of Remilekun Toyosi Meshioye, the Nigerian who died aboard Egypt Air enroute Cairo from Lagos, is suspecting the airline for being complicit in the death of their daughter and has demanded that the airline returns her body to Nigeria at their own expense.

Speaking on behalf of the family, the late Remilekun’s sister, Mrs Olufunmilola Olaniyi-Alabi, who is based in Leeds, United Kingdom, accused Egypt Air of not informing them of Remilekun’s death but instead took her to a hospital in Cairo.

The family is also requesting for all her belongings and documents in the possession of Egypt Air, including the CCTV footage in the plane and at the airport.

Olaniyi-Alabi said, “I am of the opinion that Egypt Air is hiding some truth as to what happened to her in the plane and on landing at the airport on Monday night. They don’t want to take responsibility for what happened to Remi.

“As a family, we are demanding for her body to be returned back to Nigeria by Egypt Air at their own expense and they should return all her luggage to Lagos where she boarded the plane on Monday, September 4.”

Narrating the incident, Olaniyi-Alabi said, “We called Egypt Air customer care and all other 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 Regional 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.

“It was at this point that we intensified our efforts as regards trying to get in touch with Egypt Air.

“I and my husband later travelled to London (Heathrow) on Wednesday night to get to London on Thursday morning and we demanded to see the Egypt Air Regional Manager in their London office who made some calls on Thursday afternoon in her office to their Cairo office.

“She later informed us that Remi fell sick in the plane and on landing in Cairo, they rushed her to the hospital in town where she later died. The effort to obtain more information from her was not quite successful as to how she died. She said the Nigerian embassy has been informed and they are the ones that should have contacted us. She later called the Nigeria Consular.

“I strongly feel that Egypt Air should have contacted us as  the passenger’s next of kin as against us struggling to get information which as at this time that I am writing, they are yet to provide to us.

“We spoke to the Nigerian Consular, who responded  that Eygpt Air only informed them on Tuesday that Remi is dead and handed over her body to them but did not have any other information or any contact of her relatives.”

All efforts made by the family of the late Remilekun to unravel what went wrong onboard the aircraft enroute Cairo failed as neither the airline nor the Nigerian Embassy has provided what transpired.

Egypt Air said, “Only the Nigeria embassy through the Nigerian Consular will be able to write and demand for what happened on the plane.”