Air India crash families in UK have 'received the wrong bodies', say lawyers

LONDON/NEW DELHI: Some of the families of Britons killed in the June 12 Air India 171 crash in Ahmedabad have been sent wrong or commingled mortal remains, British lawyers acting for them told TOI.

Taking note of an earlier report on the issue by Daily Mail, the Indian govt has clarified that the victims were identified as per “established protocols and technical requirements” and that they “are continuing to work with the UK authorities on addressing any concerns related to this issue,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Wednesday. “All mortal remains were handled with utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the deceased,” he added.

“Sadly, the stories of mistakes with mixed remains have been repeatedly recounted to us by families we represent,” Sarah Stewart, aviation partner at Stewarts, a law firm, told TOI. “Our clients feel that they were let down, with allegedly apparent mistakes by the forensic teams in India and insufficient support by British consular services, the foreign office and the British crisis response teams for the families of those British citizens killed in the accident.”

Demetrius Danas, a specialist aviation law lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, which is also advising some families affected by the Air India crash , told TOI some families have reported receiving remains not belonging to their loved ones. He said this raises “serious questions around the recovery and repatriation process” and “just adds to the hurt and pain they continue to face”.

James Healy-Pratt, aviation partner at Keystone Law in the UK, which is representing around 20 families of victims, told TOI they “expect PM Starmer to raise these serious issues with PM Modi this week in London. The families deserve urgent answers and assurances about the whereabouts of their loved ones.”

The identification of mortal remains and DNA matching was carried out by the Ahmedabad civil hospital.

A UK govt spokesperson said: “Formal identification of bodies is a matter for the Indian authorities.” However, allrepatriated remains are being independently investigated in line with UK processes, by the Inner West London Senior Coroner, based in Westminster in the UK. The coroner opened and adjourned her inquest into 12 deaths on July 9. Disaster victim identification experts from the UK have been deployed to Ahmedabad to support the UK's consular response and “to understand in-country processes for victim identification, mortuary operations and support services”, the UK govt said.

Relatives of one victim had to abandon their funeral plans after being informed that their coffin contained the body of an unknown passenger rather than their family member, the Daily Mail reported. In another case, the “commingled” remnants of more than one person killed in the crash were mistakenly placed in the same casket. They had to be separated before the funeral could go ahead, the Mail reported.

The BBC spoke to a third person, Miten Patel, who said the coroner told him that “other remains” were found in his mother Shobhana’s casket. Both his mother and father, Ashok, were killed in the crash. "There has to be a level of responsibility that you’re sending the right bodies to the UK,” he said.

The bungled repatriation was uncovered when Inner West London senior coroner Prof Fiona Wilcox sought to verify repatriated Britons’ identities by matching their DNA with samples provided by the families.

Around 12 bodies have been repatriated to the UK so far.

James Healy-Pratt of Keystone Law told the Mail: “I’ve been sitting down in the homes of these lovely British families over the last month, and the first thing they want is their loved ones back. But some of them have got the wrong remains and they are clearly distraught over this. I think these families deserve an explanation. One family now has no one to bury because it was the wrong person in their casket. And if isn’t their relative, the question is, who is it in that coffin?”