(CBC)

A central Newfoundland family was forced to delay a funeral last week because Air Canada failed to deliver the remains of the deceased.

The Springdale family of Dennis Hamilton, who died suddenly last week while working in Alberta, said they were distraught that his body was left thousands of kilometres away.

Sister-in-law Judy Hamilton said she received two devastating phone calls last week: the first about Dennis Hamilton's death in Fort McMurray, Alta., and then the second to inform her that his body was not on the plane when it landed at the airport in Deer Lake, N.L., about 130 kilometres away.

"This was the funeral director, saying, 'He's not here.' He said he got bumped in Montreal, and the cargo went on, but he got bumped," Hamilton told CBC News.

Air Canada was looking into what went wrong.

Hamilton said the family was aghast at the incident, which delayed both the viewing at the funeral home and the funeral service itself.

Dennis Hamilton's body arrived on a flight Thursday afternoon, about 12 hours later than expected.

"You just don't bump a loved one in Montreal and keep him there for a whole night and say, 'They can wait,'" she said.

"And let luggage go on? It's not acceptable."

Hamilton said no one from Air Canada contacted them during the ordeal.

"He was put somewhere — we don't really know. I don't think we really want to know," she said.

"There wasn't much compassion, as far as the family's concerned."

She said she wants assurance from the airline that no other family will ever have to go through the same thing.