I work with the bereaved and have done so (part and now full time) for 21 years. I have often been involved with families that are repatriating bodies back to the UK when the person died on holiday etc. I have not, thus far, had a family with this situation.
Firstly - there is more to this than any onlooker can know.
I agree that the wife might well have asked to go to destination. Depending on the carrier, a demand to return to departure would probably have been met, despite horrendous costs and time delay.
When a death occurs you cannot possibly guess what the bereaved are thinking - for they hardly know themselves. They do what they think best at the time. If their child lived in SIN (or nearby), that would be the best place to go. Perhaps SIN was home. The carrier would have been able to contact all the usual people and the family there in advance of arrival.
I agree that to be landed in some mid-way point would FAR worse. Let's say that fuel burn allowed an easy stop at Rome. So she arrives with no Visa, cash or family or friends and has to arrange the storage/certification/repatriation of her husband? Not good.
As to 'decomposing body'. I appreciate that folks who have not encountered the recently dead are often feaful of this but - in the time that was going to elapse - nothing serious would have happened. Cabin crew would have been upset, of course, their job is to help their pax but they would have training in this.
Yes, it was horrible but NO, you do not know what messages passed between the Captain and the woman as to what to do.
In bereavement, there is no 'normal and until it happens to us, we do not know what we will do.
Last edited by PAXboy; 21st Jul 2012 at 16:42.