01:46 PM PST on Tuesday, November 30, 2004

By CHRIS INGALLS / KING 5 News

SEATTLE – A San Diego family was on a somber trip to grant a deceased relative's dying wish, but, the family says, Sea-Tac Airport security went too far when overzealous screeners dumped an urn full of ashes.

According to a lawsuit filed in Seattle Federal Court this month, the problem started right after the family checked its luggage.

KING

The remains were carried inside this backpack.

The shores of the Pacific near San Diego, California, were supposed to be the eternal resting place for Charles Mason.

Mason died in Kent nearly 2 years ago, but his last wish was to have his and his wife's ashes scattered in the seas off San Diego.

Lisa Miller of San Diego was one of Charles Mason's family members who traveled to Seattle last year to pick up the couple's ashes. It was not until she got home that she realized someone had rifled through her backpack in which she had carefully packed the ashes.

"I could feel and I could see like sand all through the backpack," she said. "The TSA broke open the container with the remains and spilled it."

In the lawsuit Miller blames security screeners at Sea-Tac Airport.

According to Miller's lawyer, TSA employees should have known not to break into the sealed plastic urn.

"Particularly in light of the fact that they had a handbook that says crematory remains are not to be opened," said Shirley Mills, lawyer.

For now, attorneys in the case have sealed the backpack and its precious remains for evidence – another delay in Charles Mason's fitful journey to his final destination.

TSA has not commented on the case, but after Lisa Miller's family first filed a complaint, the agency sent a set of guidelines to funeral homes and created a Web site explaining how to carry cremated remains on flights.

Alaska Airlines and a Kent funeral home are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.