Air India crash: Victims' grieving families sent the wrong bodies in distressing repatriation blunders

7NEWS

23-07-2025

Grieving families of British Air India crash victims have been dealt a distressing new blow after a series of repatriation blunders saw them sent the wrong bodies, not those of their loved ones.
The family of one victim had to call off their funeral after being told the coffin they were given had the remains of someone else, according to the Daily Mail UK.
Another family was given 'co-mingled' remnants of more than one person in their casket so a process of separating the remains had to be undertaken before the funeral went ahead.
The fiasco has added to the pain of families trying to farewell loved ones who were on board the doomed flight which took off from India's Ahmedabad Airport on its way to London before crashing about 30 seconds after take-off and killing 242 passengers and crew in on June 12.
The repatriation mistakes were uncovered during a verification process by Inner West London coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox who tried to match the remains of the repatriated Britons' with DNA samples provided by the families.
It is understood the remains of at least 12 of the 52 British victims have so far been repatriated and there are fears more errors could be uncovered. A number of other crash victims were cremated or buried in India.
Aviation lawyer James Healy-Pratt who represents some of the British families said he was trying to track what led to the repatriation process being so badly botched.
'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,' he told the Mail.
'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.'
While one family had been able to hold a funeral, another, which he calls Family X had not.
'Family X 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.
'The coroner also has a problem because she has an unidentified person in her jurisdiction.'
The process of identification for the crash victims has not been smooth, with one relative previously raising a 'lack of transparency and oversight in the identification and handling of remains'.
Sniffer dogs, high tech search equipment and local volunteers combed the plane wreckage after the fiery crash, with the bodies of many victims so badly burnt or maimed they had to be identified by DNA samples or dental records.
Indian authorities claimed DNA tests had confirmed the identities of all 260 fatalities on June 28.
It is understood an inquiry is underway into the misidentifications and the issue is expected to be raised when UK Prime Minister during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to the Britain next week.
A government spokesperson told the Daily Mail that formal identification of bodies was a matter for the Indian authorities.
'We understand that this is an extremely distressing time for the families, and our thoughts remain with them.'