Unisys Demands Cash For Helping Delta Air Lines Ship Dead BodiesUnisys Demands Cash For Helping Delta Air Lines Ship Dead Bodies

The owners aren't the only deadbeats at bankrupt carrier Delta Air Lines -- sometimes it's the passengers, literally. Computer hardware and services giant Unisys wants Delta to pay up for a system it built that allows the airline to track dead bodies transported on its aircraft.

Unisys says Delta owes it more than $37,000 for creating an application with "a new product code for the special handling of the transportation of human remains (bodies of deceased humans)," according to bankruptcy court records. The sum also includes updates Unisys made to the airline's Delta.com Web site and other changes to a cargo management application.

Delta's debtors have rejected the claim on what Unisys says is a technicality, and the computer maker last week asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York to order full payment.

Delta last year contracted Unisys to write software that would allow the airline's cargo management application to distinguish between "human remains shipments" and other priority cargo. According the work order, the lack of such a feature was resulting in "service failures and irate customers."

The work order doesn't elaborate, but it's not hard to imagine a family's reaction if they receive, say, a sofa instead of poor old Aunt Bertha. To fix the problem, Unisys added a new product code — HUM — to denote containers carrying corpses. And now it wants payment for the work.

And you thought lost luggage was a problem.