It is a painful process when a near one passes on, and, if this happens in a foreign country, then a lot of obstacles ensue. Some relations that may require transferring the body of a deceased from one area to another by air can be draining emotionally. Challenges of Air transport include costs and logistics, procedures add extra stress in an already burdensome situation that grieves and distresses the patients. Hence, Heaven Gate aims to describe the psychological aspects of body transportation by air, and the feelings, strategies, and aids that the bereaved families employ during such a time of loss.
Emotional Shock and Initial Grief
When the news of the death on a close comes, especially if the person has died away from home, those whom the person left behind experience shock disbelief, and grief that sets in immediately. That awareness that the body needs to be flown adds weight to these feelings. The procedures of body transportation by air that ensue can make the loss seem all the more otherworldly, as death all too frequently feels abstract, to begin with. Survivors might find it traumatic to leave their beloved close behind and turn them into mere cargo. Such a state reduces the loss to an impersonal and undignifying level thus intensifying grief and feelings of powerlessness of the deceased’s domain.
Complicated Decision-Making and Added Stress
Organizing the transport of the body through air involves decision-making at that most terrible time when one is tender-aged with grief. Families are left to make decisions on issues to do with documentation, embalming, legal formalities, and liaising with airlines and funeral companies. The responsibility attached to these offices can sometimes be frustrating. Covid has made it clear that many families feel additional stress and anxiety as they are concerned whether they are doing everything right and a pause or misunderstanding can influence the process. These procedural tasks, or ‘technologies of mourning’, while perhaps required, replicate the experience of loss by blocking attention to grieving and healing and thereby leading to a condition of affective numbing.
Finding Closure After Arrival
When the body comes and the funeral has been taken through, families start to get a kind of closure from the whole process. However, the psychological aspect of the transportation may last for several other days, weeks, or even months. Family members may mentally reenact and analyze the situation, with an eye on what was done right, or wrong. To note, families must know that such feelings are quite normal during the grieving process. As time passes, burying rites practices, and symbols can enable families to establish acceptable feelings towards death.
Impact of Air Transportation of Bodies in the Contemporary World
Indispensable in the Globalized World
With increased globalization in terms of tourism, migration, and expatriation, today more people are likely to pass away in a country other than their own. This can be a host of reasons including ferrying their loved ones back home in order to accord them a befitting burial or carrying out cultural/religious rites to give the deceased a proper send-off.
Promotes Culture and Religion
Most customs value burial and cremation rites as ways of ensuring the departed return to their culture of origin. For example: Hindu families might have to perform some last rites on Indian soil for some peace of mind. Or, it is not unusual for Muslim families to prefer burial according to their tradition, sometimes it is immediate. These practices are made possible by air transport stripping families of their comfort and sense of accomplishment.
Timely Repatriation in Crisis Situations
Sometimes, bringing home the body of a loved one can bude to their death in a mishap, calamity or health complications – thus air transport being most appropriate. This helps families to correctly bury their loved one’s remains and deal with any inevitable challenging formalities on their own.
Handling and Procedures Related to Airlines
Airlines have developed protocols to ensure dignified and respectful handling of human remains during body transportation by air, such as:
- Preserving the body through embalming and putting the body in a temperature-controlled compartment.
- Well-mannered standard persons employed for embalming the body.
- Certain carriers also provide discounted prices or additional services for carrying bodies, because dealing with grief cannot be easy for the relatives of the deceased.
Conclusion
Again, the experience of sorrow among the families for their loved ones through body transportation through the air has a complex psychological effect stressing grief stress, and loneliness. Logistical needs do layer the bereavement process slow it down and intensify the suffering involved. Many families that have experienced losses feel these emotions; counseling, other family members and friends, and, or faith can all be key in assisting families get through this. Nevertheless, the process of grief is a long and trying one. For funeral services like body transportation by air, visit Heaven Gate.