British Airways loses luggage of passenger who died during flight to Terminal 5

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The man's grieving son has been pleading with staff to help recover his belongings.

The son said that "to lose the luggage of a dead person is unforgivable".

His father, a business traveller, died aboard flight BA26 on April 2 at the height of the baggage chaos at Heathrow's new Terminal 5.

His bags are among the estimated 28,000 which went missing when the handling system failed at the £4.3billion terminal.

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Abandoned bags pile up at Heathrow's Terminal 5 two weeks ago. The luggage of a man who died on a BA flight has been lost amid the chaos

Many have been sent to Milan in Italy and Memphis in the U.S. to be sorted.

The son, an ex-BA employee, asked for information on the pilot and cabin crew website PPrune.

He wrote: "My father died on this flight. He was a commercial travelling in World Traveller Plus, I believe a bulkhead seat, and collapsed after coming out of the toilet.

"I'm ex-BA groundstaff at London Heathrow and if any crew who assisted him in his last moments would be kind enough to share their experiences of what happened, please message me."

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Check-in here for chaos: Disgruntled passengers waiting for flight information

He said his father was travelling on to Manchester then to the Philippines.

"It would be nice if BA offered to fly him up back home. He would smile at that thought 'One last flight, a bloody Shuttle back home!'.

"Also, we'd like to get the baggage back. I believe his handbaggage is safe but I do hope his cases haven't gone to Milan."

In later correspondence the son says: "Now if we could have his bags back (incl handbaggage), that would be nice. I have no energy left to get angry about this but to lose the luggage of a dead person is unforgivable."

A British Airways spokesman said: "We can confirm that on April 2 a passenger onboard BA26 Hong Kong to Heathrow collapsed and died during the flight.

"Our deepest sympathies go out to his family.

"We have been in constant touch with his family and have been doing our utmost to return his baggage to them.

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Heathrow hell: Stranded passengers face long delays as Heathrow bosses struggle to overcome what they call the terminal's 'teething troubles'

"The cabin crew did everything they could for him and were very distressed following the incident.

"We are now actively working with his family to return any outstanding items of baggage."

Last night, the airline denied it was "incinerating or taking to rubbish dumps" the bags of passengers it could not locate.

British Airways did not rule out sending unclaimed bags to auction but said it would keep them for six months and "make every effort" to reunite them with their owners.