British families grieving after the Air India disaster have discovered that the remains of their loved ones have been wrongly identified before repatriation, according to an aviation lawyer representing them.
Relatives of one victim had to abandon funeral plans after being informed that their coffin contained the body of an unknown passenger.
In another case, the “commingled” remains of more than one person killed in the crash were mistakenly placed in the same casket and had to be separated before the interment could go ahead, the Daily Mail reported.
The news came before the start of a two-day state visit to London by India’s prime minister on Wednesday. Narendra Modi will meet his British counterpart, Keir Starmer, to sign a landmark free trade agreement between India and the UK.
The mistakes emerged when the senior coroner for London Inner West, Dr Fiona Wilcox, sought to verify the repatriated Britons’ identities by matching their DNA with samples provided by the families, the Mail reported.
A London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport on 12 June, killing 241 people onboard, of whom 52 were returning Britons. Another 19 people died on the ground and 67 were seriously injured.
A preliminary report found the plane’s fuel switches had been moved to cut-off, deepening the mystery of what happened and leaving families distressed and seeking answers. The report from India’s aircraft accident investigation bureau, published on 10 July, said both of the plane’s fuel switches moved to the cut-off position immediately after takeoff, stopping fuel supply to the engines.
While some of the dead were cremated or buried in India, the remains of at least 12 victims had been repatriated, said James Healy-Pratt, an aviation lawyer representing many of the British families.
He said he was expecting Starmer to raise these issues with Modi this week at their meeting in London. “The families deserve urgent answers and assurances about the whereabouts of their loved ones,” said Healy-Pratt, who told the Mail he was looking into what had happened during the identification process.
“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. It has been going on for a couple of weeks [and] I think these families deserve an explanation.”
He said while the family who received the “commingled” remains had been able to have them separated to hold a funeral service, the second family had been left “in limbo”.
“[They] have 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? Presumably it’s another passenger and their relatives have been given the wrong remains.”
He added: “The coroner also has a problem because she has an unidentified person in her jurisdiction.”
Approached by the Mail, Wilcox said it would be inappropriate for her to comment.
Healy-Pratt said the families were in contact with their MPs, the Foreign Office and the offices of the prime minister and the foreign secretary.
“On the known evidence, the chain of custody of these lost loved ones was unacceptably poor,” he said. “We are investigating the causes of those failures and demanding answers on behalf of these deserving British families.”
after newsletter promotion
The family of Akeel Nanabawa, Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter, Sara, from Gloucester, who were all killed in the crash, told the Guardian they were were confident they had received the correct bodies but the identification process was “marked by deep unease”.
“We received formal identification of our three beloved family members within a week or so of the plane crash,” the family said in a statement. “While we were grateful to be able to bury them in India, in line with our Islamic faith, the process was marked by deep unease.
“From the outset, there was a clear lack of transparency and accountability in how the identification and repatriation of victims was handled. Communication was poor. Processes were unclear. And concerns raised by bereaved families – both in India and the UK – were often met with silence.
“We will continue to call for transparency, truth, and accountability, not just for ourselves, but for every family affected.”
Air India said it had no comment on the report of the wrong remains being sent back. But an airline official, who wished to remain unnamed, noted that the airline had not been involved in the identification of the remains. “It was the hospital, they who were the ones who confirmed the next-of-kin matches,” they said.
Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson for India’s ministry of external affairs, said: “We have seen the report and have been working closely with the UK side from the moment these concerns and issues were brought to our attention.”
He added that “in the wake of the tragic crash, the concerned authorities had carried out identification of victims as per established protocols and technical requirements. All mortal remains were handled with utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the deceased. We are continuing to work with the UK authorities on addressing any concerns related to this issue.”
A senior official of the Ahmedabad civil hospital, which was involved in coordinating the identification efforts, said: “Everything was done on a highly scientific basis.” He declined to comment further.