TWO British women who allegedly tried to smuggle a dead relative onto a flight out of England Weekend at Bernie's-style have been arrested.

Kurt Willi Jarant, 91, was in a wheelchair and wearing sunglasses as his widow and her daughter attempted to check him in at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, northwest England.

Airport staff helped the elderly man, who suffered from Alzheimer's, out of a taxi into the wheelchair when he arrived for his flight.

Bodies: What really happens when people die on planes

But officials became suspicious and took his pulse, discovering he had passed away.

Police then detained his widow Gitta Jarant, and her daughter, Anke Anusic, at the airport on suspicion of having failed to give notification of death. They have been released on bail.

The pair, who live in Oldham, northwest England, denied he was dead when they brought him from their home to take the flight to Germany.

A police doctor said he had been dead for more than 24 hours, according to Ms Anusic, but she fiercely denied this.

"They would think that for 24 hours we would carry a dead person?" the 41-year-old told the BBC.

"This is ridiculous. He was moving, he was breathing."

The pair said they thought that with his eyes closed the elderly man was asleep.

"He was alive. He was pale but he wasn't dead," Ms Anusic added.

Gitta Jarant, 66, told the broadcaster her husband, whom she called Willi, was "the best man in the world."

"Everyone loved him and everyone was in shock about his death," she said.

"I loved my Willi."

"So many people had seen him in the previous 24 hours. We had checked his temperature and checked his wellbeing. The accusations are wrong," Ms Anusic said.

Bodies: What really happens when people die on planes

In-depth: All the latest travel news

Follow our Twitter blog



Follow our travel reporter and travel editor's Twitter blog

Originally published as Women caught with dead body at airport