Police investigate as car drives into several parked cars in Maesteg
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The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
Mother of British victim of Air India crash left ‘heartbroken' by casket error
The mother of one of the British victims of the Air India crash says her family is 'heartbroken' after the wrong remains were sent home in his casket. Air India's London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college hostel seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing 241 people onboard. The dead included 52 British nationals, making it one of the deadliest plane crashes in terms of the number of UK fatalities. Among the British victims were Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, 39, and his husband Jamie, 45, who were returning to Britain after celebrating their wedding anniversary in India. Greenlaw-Meek's mother, Amanda Donaghey, flew to India to find her son's remains, providing a DNA sample at Ahmedabad's civil hospital to help the identification process. A match was made on 20 June and she returned to the UK with Greenlaw-Meek's coffin. But on 5 July, police told Donaghey that DNA tests carried out in the UK showed her son's remains were not in the coffin. 'We don't know what poor person is in that casket,' she told the Sunday Times. 'I had my doubts but to be told that was heartbreaking. This is an appalling thing to have happened.' The revelation emerged as the families of Greenlaw-Meek and his husband prepared to bury the couple together. Donaghey urged the UK government to do everything in its power to find out what happened to his remains 'and bring Fiongal home'. Lawyers for a number of the British victims said last week that at least two of the 12 caskets returned to the UK contained misidentified remains. James Healy-Pratt, whose firm Keystone Law is representing families of crash victims, said: 'We know that 12 caskets were repatriated from India to the UK. Of those 12, two had been mishandled, misidentified. 'And so if you extrapolate that sample, you're looking at 40 mishandled remains out of 240. That's a very large number, but we simply don't know.' Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Healy-Pratt said families of victims were asking the Foreign Office and Keir Starmer, the prime minister, to intervene because the Indian authorities had 'not been transparent or helpful'. 'The families are waiting to hear, first thing next week, about what actions are really being done in India to provide some degree of assurance,' he told Times Radio. The coffin of 71-year-old Shobhana Patel, another British victim, is said to have contained the remains of several people. She died with her husband Ashok, 74, as they returned to the UK from a Hindu religious trip. Their son, Miten Patel, told the Sunday Times: 'There may have been a mistake. But for religious reasons we need to make sure my mother is my mother and not somebody else's remains. Knowing 100% that it is my mum is very important to us.' 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.
Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Four friends dead in horrific freeway car crash involving drunk driver
Four friends tragically lost their lives in a car accident after a drunk driver slammed into their vehicle on a freeway in Norwalk, California. At around 1am on July 20, the group of 24-year-olds was driving home from a concert when their Nissan got involved in a crash with a California Highway Patrol vehicle and stalled on in the middle of the 605 freeway. That's when a Kia slammed into the back of the Nissan at high speed, causing the latter to burst into flames and trapping the four friends inside, where they all died. According to officials, the Kia's driver was drunk. 'This was entirely preventable due to the fact that one of the drivers was driving under the influence,' said CHP Officer Zachary Salazar. The victims were identified as Julie Harmori, her boyfriend Armando Del Campo, and their two friends, Jordan Partidge and Sam Skocili. They were pronounced dead at the scene. Kathy Stickel, Harmori's aunt, said that Partridge had called her mother after the initial crash with the CHP vehicle to let her know that the group had been in accident, but that they were okay. However, in the middle of the call, the line went dead. This was the moment the Kia slammed into their car. Stickel said that the four friend had formed deep-rooted friendships with one another that stretched back many years. 'She was about the relationships,' Stickel said of her niece, adding that the group had been friends since junior high school. The families of all four victims are turning to each other for support. 'All the parents are checking on each other,' Stickel said. 'They're also checking on people who they've met through this whole tragedy.' Family members created a joint GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral expenses. 'Proceeds will be divided evenly among the four families' parents, as they scramble to memorialize their children,' the fundraiser page read. Heartbreaking The other two victims were identified as the couple's two friends, Sam Skocili left) and Jordan Partidge (right) The Kia driver, Iris Salmeron, 26, of Bellflower, and her passenger, who was unidentified, were taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Salmeron was arrested and is now facing multiple felony charges, including driving under the influence. CHP Officer Salazar said: 'Our hearts go out to the families who are involved in terms of the victims…our officers are going to investigate this to the best of their ability.'
BreakingNews.ie
7 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Man pulled from water in Co Donegal dies in hospital
A man who was pulled from the water in Co Donegal has died in hospital, gardai said. Emergency services were called to Bundoran after they were alerted to a man in the water at around 5.20 pm on Saturday. Advertisement RNLI removed the man, aged in his 70s, from the water, and he was taken to Sligo University Hospital in a serious condition but later died. Gardaí do not suspect foul play was involved in the incident.
