Business Aviation Provides a Critical Service for Grieving Families

In countless ways, the business aviation industry demonstrates its essential societal benefits through operations around the globe, including transporting medical patients, responding to natural disasters and the difficult task of returning deceased loved ones to their families after tragedies far from home.

The sensitive mission of transporting lost loved ones home can present logistical challenges that sometimes require scheduling flexibility as well as access to smaller, rural airports.

“Business aviation offers the grieving family a more private experience because we can return remains to a hangar, funeral home or destination of the client’s choice,” said Sarah Kiehl, founder of SK Executive Transportation Solutions LLC. “They’re able to fly along with the deceased and take their time. I’ve had a family that I sat down with when their loved one’s casket case had been boarded, and they just wanted to have time with them.”

Like Kiehl’s company, Paramount Business Jets’ many services also include offering transportation for lost loved ones.

“We work both directly with families and with designated third parties, depending on the situation,” said Paramount CEO Richard Zaher. “In many cases, we coordinate closely with funeral homes, mortuary services, hospitals, insurance providers, consulates or legal representatives who are handling arrangements on behalf of the family. In other situations, especially domestic flights, families may contact us directly. Regardless of who initiates the request, we serve as the central aviation coordinator, ensuring all parties are aligned and that the aircraft, crew, permits, and documentation meet every applicable requirement.”

Additional Services, Reduced Wait Times

Commercial airlines typically have often been used to transport deceased loved ones by air. However, on-demand charter operators increasingly are becoming the preferred provider of these flights as they can offer more personalized services, such as memorial planning, additional venue options for memorial services and assistance with proper documentation for repatriation to the U.S. from foreign countries.

“When a family loses a loved one far from home, commercial airline processes can involve long delays, rigid schedules, multiple handoffs and complex paperwork,” Zaher said. “Business aviation allows us to reduce wait times dramatically, often arranging transport within hours or a day rather than several days.”

Additionally, a business aircraft often can fly more direct routes that require fewer transfers, as well as a higher level of care and discretion.

“Families know exactly who is handling the remains, where they are at every stage, and when they will arrive,” Zaher added. “That certainty can be profoundly comforting during an otherwise overwhelming moment. From a humanitarian standpoint, business aviation allows us to respond with flexibility, compassion and urgency, which is often critical when cultural, religious or family considerations require timely burial or memorial services.”

Inspired by Personal Tragedy

These tasks can be very time-consuming given the complex international protocols that must be followed, as well as specific facilities that often are required. Given these complexities, many people in these situations prefer to deal with more specialized and flexible charter services.

“When I first started doing this, I didn’t realize how really hard it was to get a family member back to their home base and to their family and final resting place,” said Kiehl. “It has required some of the skills I already had previously to do this and really helped me in working with grieving families.”

In 2005, a tragedy struck a close family friend and raised Kiehl’s awareness about the complexities of bringing home lost loved ones. Her friend suddenly was forced to deal with losing three family members – her mother, father and a brother – in an aircraft accident.

“I saw her struggle so much and I thought, ‘What if there was just something else, some other way to help her,’” Kiehl recalled. “My grief was taking over everything else, but I felt for her as a young woman trying to navigate all of these different things that have to happen.”

Coordinating With Authorities

The charter companies who offer these services are experts at coordinating with relevant authorities such the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Customs and Border Protection and foreign embassies to ensure all necessary documentation is in order.

“The repatriation flights from outside of the country are sometimes very difficult because the causes of death may be under investigation,” Kiehl said. “It depends on what kind of loss it is. Is it somebody with an underlying health issue like a heart attack? If we don’t know the cause of death, then there may be times I’m going to work with the medical examiner, the police department, the consulate – all of those things in the background to get the body released to me.”

Paramount has handled dozens of flights involving the repatriation of human remains, both domestically and internationally.

“While these missions represent a small portion of our overall charter activity, they are among the most sensitive and meaningful flights we arrange,” Zaher said. “For example, we have coordinated international repatriation flights returning loved ones to the U.S. from Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America, often on short notice. In other cases, we’ve arranged domestic flights to transport remains from remote or hard-to-reach locations where scheduled airline service was not practical or would have caused significant delays.”

Overall, companies that provide these kinds of services are often an integral part of emergency response plans for business aircraft operators. They can go a long way toward lifting the burden of managing aviation logistics and other important details, so companies and grieving families can focus on remembering and honoring loved ones.