Tenerife airport horror: Elderly man tries to board flight with deceased wife; what really happened?

A disturbing scene unfolded at Tenerife South Airport in Spain’s Canary Islands when an 80-year-old man was stopped while attempting to board a flight with his wife’s body seated in a wheelchair, initially believed by staff to be an elderly couple travelling together.According to reporting by Diario de Avisos, concerns were only raised after the couple had already cleared the routine security check. A security guard noticed that the woman was completely unresponsive and, on closer inspection, realised she was not breathing and had an abnormally low body temperature. An airport employee later told the newspaper that when the guard took the woman’s hand, she immediately sensed something was wrong, prompting supervisors to be alerted and emergency protocols to be activated within minutes, with security staff, Civil Guard officers and forensic teams arriving at the scene.Emergency procedures were triggered immediately, with security staff, officers from the Guardia Civil, and forensic teams attending the boarding area. The man was arrested at the scene and is said to have cooperated fully with investigators.During questioning, the husband reportedly told authorities that his wife had died “a few hours prior” inside the airport terminal. Investigators are now examining conflicting accounts after witnesses claimed the man attempted to attribute her death to the airport facilities themselves.

Officials have confirmed that the investigation remains open, focusing on the cause of death and whether any criminal liability exists, including potential offences related to transporting a body or failing to report a death.

The nationality of the couple and their intended destination have not yet been confirmed.The Tenerife case has drawn particular attention because it follows another unsettling incident at Malaga Airport only weeks earlier.

In that case, passengers on a easyJet flight bound for Gatwick Airport were shocked to discover they had boarded the aircraft alongside the body of an 89-year-old British woman.Witnesses said the woman was wheeled through Málaga Airport and onto the plane by five relatives, who allegedly told airline staff that she was unwell and had fallen asleep. According to passengers, concerns raised by a boarding clerk about her condition were dismissed after the group insisted she was “just tired,” with one person reportedly adding: “It’s OK, we’re doctors.”In that instance, the woman was seated on the aircraft before cabin crew realised, shortly before take-off, that she showed no vital signs. The plane was forced to return to the stand before leaving the runway, delaying the flight by around 12 hours. EasyJet later said the passenger had held a medical certificate allowing her to fly and that she died on board the aircraft, though the incident prompted widespread alarm among fellow travellers.While the circumstances of the Málaga case differ from those now under investigation in Tenerife, both incidents have raised troubling questions about how deaths are identified and handled in busy international airports, and about the limits of responsibility placed on families, airlines and airport authorities when passengers are seriously ill.Authorities in Tenerife have stressed that the current case is still being examined and that no conclusions have yet been drawn. For now, investigators are working to establish precisely when and how the woman died, and whether any laws were broken before her husband attempted to take her through security as if she were still alive.