WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Dead Bodies and Airline Codes 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:08.720 Hello, Hello, and welcome to short Stuff. Short Stuff podcast. 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:13.760 So nice I said it twice. Okay, there's Chuck, I'm Josh, 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.479 there's Jerry. Let's get going, everybody. I've eaten up a 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:18.919 lot of time here. Yeah. Here's the thing with the 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:23.000 Jim Wilson airline code. Everybody. Supposedly it is the American 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.880 Airlines code for a dead body on a plane. And 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:27.760 when I first saw this and I thought that would 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:30.360 be a cool IDEA little did I know that it 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.280 would have been a podcast we don't do yet called 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:36.520 almost no Stuff. It would have been like forty five 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.960 seconds long. So we started trading things and we're going 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:42.919 to talk about shipping dead bodies and about other airline 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:46.640 codes and other fun stuff like that almost Stuff. But 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:49.920 I don't know if it's quite true or not. It 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.519 seems that American Airlines, uh, according to this author, is 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.000 Jim Wilson airline code for a dead body on a plane. 0:00:56.640 --> 0:01:00.440 From our former website, how stuff Works dot com. Still around, 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.440 still kicking, still doing it, still going, Everyone gonna check 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:07.200 it out. Uh. They got in touch with American Airlines 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:09.759 and they're kind of denied it that that was the truth. 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:12.039 They said, who told you that, but it seems like 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.280 it's very much the truth that that's their code. Yeah. 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:18.400 Here's the thing, like, the whole the whole premise of 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:24.080 this urban legend, possible truth thing is that you would 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.440 ever be in a situation where you're on a plane 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.280 and some flight attendant needs to tell another flight attendant 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.120 at the back of the plane that there's something going 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.160 on with the dead body, and they can't just walk 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:35.920 down the aisle. It's like, oh, no, I gotta let 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:38.240 you know now. But even still like that would have 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:40.399 anything to do with the flight attendants, anything to do 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.360 with the cabin because all dead bodies are shipped in 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.840 the cargo hole. They don't they don't prop them up 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:50.680 in like you know, you know, they they fly them 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.000 a certain way, So there's no reason for them to 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.840 have a code like Jim Wilson to denote that there's 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:00.560 a corpse being transported on this plane. And yet the 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.680 strangest thing is that it really does seem like they 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.400 did have that code, Like you were saying, it's possible, 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:10.240 because even though they deny it now, the impression I 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:14.680 have is that they somewhat recently, but not in the 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.600 immediate past, but in the memorable past did call it 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.160 Jim Wilson Service, and then they just discontinued it and 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:24.480 called it what same people would call it, would be 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:30.480 like carefully and tenderly moving human remains, because you don't 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:33.600 have to have a code name for something like that. Yeah, 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:35.760 this was a little frustrating because I wanted there to 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.520 be a cool origin story. Nope, and there's not. But 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:42.760 apparently there is a page or at one time there 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:47.440 was recently on the National Funeral Director's Association website that 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:52.280 very much did say or does say uh, instructing their 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:56.639 members to use the American Airlines cargo Jim Wilson service. Right, 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.520 American Airlines is going, I don't know what talking about. 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:02.920 I've never heard of that. No, And there's a site 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.160 called Jim Wilson I believe Jim Wilson dot com. It 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.000 might be dot org where it's just a single page 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.720 and there's some links and you know, quotes that kind 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.400 of support the idea that it it did exist, if 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:18.440 does if it doesn't. Still, there's a Wall Street Journal 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:24.000 article from seven that specifically says that that that is 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:30.200 the code for this type of service handling um non cremated, 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.000 casketed human remains, that it's Jim Wilson's service, and they 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.200 quote a funeral director saying that we say that because 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:39.680 you know it's it's much better to say something like 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.520 that than you know what it actually is around the 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:46.520 bereaving family, which again I don't understand that that that 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:50.360 guy's logic at all, doesn't really make any sense. Um, 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:52.440 but that I mean, it was in the Wall Street 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.520 Journal in n so that definitely lends some support as well. 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.240 But was it specific to American airlines? I believe it was. 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:01.920 I think it's all always been associated with American airlines, 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.680 which makes it even more you know, potentially correct. Yeah. Yeah, 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:09.800 I found out that other airlines supposedly say HR for 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:14.160 Human remains abbreviate it. I saw h U M as well, 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:19.320 the HUM service. What is that staying for human? It's 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:26.040 sure for human. It's like you got comfort plus sky HUM. 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.480 Human remains that whole thing. Well, I guess that differentiates 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.160 it from human resources, which is commonly what you think 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.720 of with HR. Just HR and all those great meetings 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:38.760 that companies always have about HR. Sure exactly, and human remains. 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:43.200 So maybe we should take a break and because we 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.600 did dig up some stuff about how you can transport 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.680 a dead body because you know, you don't think about it, 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.760 you could die on vacation in another state or another country. Um. 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:55.640 And we'll tell you about that stuff right after this, 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.000 hey chuck, before we get back to this. Like, I 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:20.120 have one more piece of fishy evidence. If you search 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.640 on your favorite search engine, whatever that may be, I 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.360 certainly don't condone one over the other. Although I use 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.359 Firefox is a web browser. Now I avoid being like 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:35.440 the plague. Um I. If you type in Jim Wilson 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:39.280 American Airlines, not service, not human rights, no nothing, just 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:44.680 Jim Wilson, American Airlines, you will find it takes you 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.760 to the American Airlines Human Remains site and it rolls you. 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.040 It does rick roll you for sure. Wow. So it 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:57.000 just directs you right to their Huh it does right. 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:02.040 So at the very least, the the your favorite search 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.800 engine is is in on this whole joke. That'd be 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:07.960 pretty cool. And there's also one other part to this 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.880 joke to um the uh there there's a linked in 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.840 profile for a guy named Jim Wilson at American Airlines, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.640 and does it say, uh, this is avatar like a skeleton. 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:26.680 Um no, it's like a normal PERSONA. Well, that's probably him, 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.720 I think so. So that's it for Jim Wilson. Here's 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.719 the deal though, if you do have the need to 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:37.440 transport a deceased loved one or yourself, like if someone 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.599 else is dealing with that, obviously, although you could probably 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.000 pre arrange this, uh, what you're gonna have to do 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.360 is work with probably two funeral homes and funeral directors 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:49.560 because you gotta get someone on the front end and 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:51.880 the back end. You can't just from what I can 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.520 tell A, you know, you can't do it at the 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.800 uh at the origin flight, like, you gotta get a 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.680 known shipper. That's what is known as the funeral homes 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:03.440 and directors are approved as these shippers. But you can't 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:08.240 just then say I'll just pick them up at baggage claim. 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:10.360 You gotta get someone to do that behind the scenes. 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:12.840 And that's going to be a funeral director as well. Right, 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.200 So you need a funeral director on each end, and 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:21.280 that's gonna cost you. It's probably not super cheap. It depends. 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.880 I mean, they haven't here anywhere from to fifteen grand. 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.600 If it's international, it all depends on the weight, how 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.920 far you're traveling. Uh. And obviously you know you can 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.160 do it by plane, trainer, automobile, but the plane will 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.000 be the most expensive. Yeah, and train is pretty cost 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:41.480 effective driving the the could ever the corpse, the human 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:45.360 remains yourself is the is um the most cost effective? 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:47.360 Can you do that? You can do it, but you 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.440 have to follow all the same guidelines and laws that 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:52.840 that any funeral director would have to follow, and you 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:54.880 might not know all of them. But if you're really 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:57.360 research heavy and you want to have a story about 0:07:57.400 --> 0:07:59.800 how you drove your dead aunt across the country and 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.480 you're station wagon, you can do it. The problem is, 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:06.680 is UM with driving in particular, you're gonna go through 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.080 a bunch of states that might have different laws about 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:13.200 transporting human remains. Some say has to be embalmed. Well, 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:18.560 what if your aunt wants to be a cryonically preserved, Well, 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:21.440 you're you can embalm somebody like that. So you have 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.920 to go around that state or it's just probably way 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.280 better to hire a funeral director um to help with 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.240 that because they know this stuff and they know how 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.400 to handle it. Again, it's just pretty expensive. Yeah, and 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.560 here's something I never knew sort of one of the 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:41.079 maccab sides of travel insurance, you can actually pay, uh, 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:46.400 you can pay somebody to take care of this just 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.960 in case, I guess insurance if you're I don't know, 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:51.680 if you if you're on the road for a couple 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.559 of years, or you're going someplace really dangerous, or maybe 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:56.360 if you're in ill health and you don't have to travel, 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.880 or if you plan on dying, you know your own hand, 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.120 suppose you can do that. That's a really good point. 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.880 I wonder if that's something that people who like travel 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:11.760 to Switzerland for assisted suicide take into account. Surely they do, maybe, 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:13.720 I mean, apparently it cost less than five hundred bucks. 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.440 Is certainly a lot cheaper than a fifteen thousand dollar 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.640 international shipment exactly. Yeah, I saw as much as twenty 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.880 five thousand for international shipping of of a body. You 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:26.280 often have to, um have documents translated. Because you have 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.040 to have all your documents, everything from your passport to 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:32.800 the certificate that says you were embalmed. Everything, um, it 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.440 can get very very very costly. So yeah, five bucks. 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:38.960 I wonder if the travel insurance people have gotten hip 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:41.000 to this thing though. I don't know. I mean it's 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.640 you know, everyone's always got their hand out. So it's 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.679 not like you can even put a casket directly into 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.000 the cargo hold. It has to sit. And especially made 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.080 tray that is built by a company that also charges 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:55.520 money for that right and and one of the early 0:09:55.559 --> 0:10:00.520 manufacturers of air trays supposedly was the Jim Wilson Company. Posedly, 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:04.320 I supposedly, if you really want to do the right 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.839 thing and do it cheaper, well, I say it's the 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:11.920 right thing is you will have cremated remains a much 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.800 more cost effective, much easier to ship. You can't even 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.280 you can carry those yourself, even if you have the 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.640 right receptacle. Yes you can. And so if you are 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.320 going to fly with created remains, a lot of airlines 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.080 will let you carry them on. It's like carry on luggage. 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:27.760 But that means they have to go through the X 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.160 ray machine, which means you have to have like you 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:35.400 can't use like a leadline urn because t s A 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:36.959 will be like you can't come on with that, and 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.520 we're not allowed to open it. Now there's a New 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:43.360 York Giants line lineman. I'm not sure what position he plays. 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:46.240 His name is a J. Francis who just blew up 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.040 twitter um putting. I can't remember. I guess it was 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.600 T s A on blast because they went through his 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.200 luggage and he had checked the bag with his mother's 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:57.560 created remains, and they opened up the bag and got 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.280 his mother all over his stuff in his suitcase. What 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:04.320 he went berserk. The T s A had like a 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:06.480 different story about it. They said that they packed it 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:08.880 carefully and wasn't their fault, but he wasn't buy in it. 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:14.360 So um, if I were transporting a loved one's created remains, 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:18.040 I would definitely carry it on. But you need to 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.959 have like a special wood box or something like that. Sure, 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.200 all of my animals are in wood boxes right at 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.760 least temporarily. Like you can get a nice urn on 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.600 the other end, but just don't try to transport them 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:34.160 through T s A with that really nice er. Yeah, 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:35.960 I like the wood box. I'm not a big urn guy. 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:38.600 Oh so you okay? I thought you were making fun 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:40.600 of me, Like no, no, no, we have these very nice, 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.920 hand hand carved woodboxes. That's very nice. Not not into 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.720 the urns, very nice. I do have a little something 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:49.800 more though, on airline secret codes because I think everyone 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:53.240 knows that you can't just get on the intercom as 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.840 a pilot and say something awful was happening. Uh. You 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:58.840 need a little lead time to deal with stuff sometimes. 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.240 So there's something called code RABO. Apparently they use that 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.880 to distract passengers from real danger so they can kind 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.680 of take care of things on the down low. Uh. 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:14.120 Se means your plane has been hijacked, supposedly, So if 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:20.040 you hear that, no good, Yeah the number seventy Oh man, 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:23.320 I'm going to not be able to not listen out 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.840 for that constantly on every flight. Now do your pilot 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:32.559 announcing that, Uh, folks, we got ourselves a code. Everyone's 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.040 like what, we don't know what that is, and that's 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:37.679 probably for the best, So just sit back, relax, and 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:41.520 we will probably blow up any time. Now. It's one 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.280 of my favorite things, is it. It's your best impression. 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:46.800 It's my impression of a pilot doing an impression of 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:50.319 chuck y uh. And then there's seventy six D or 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:56.520 seventy seven hundred that means respectively, radio failure UH or 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.559 general emergency. And then the status of all code ADAM, 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:02.520 which you'll also hear at chopping malls or whatever. And 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:06.120 that's when there's an incident with a child. Oh then 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:10.240 it's named after the Adam that was Adam Wash, Adam Wash. Yeah. 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:13.960 Have you got anything else? Nothing else? No more codes. Nope, 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.760 that's it for Uh. This short Stuff on Jim Wilson. 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:20.160 Who knows if it's real or not. I guess if 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.000 we all make believe that it is real, we can 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:25.480 make it real. So let's do that. Uh. And in 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:30.520 the meantime, Short Stuff is out. Stuff you should Know 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:32.840 is a production of I Heart Radios. How Stuff Works. 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:35.520 For more podcasts For my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.280 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:38.960 favorite shows.