Some Air India plane crash victims' families in U.K. were sent the wrong remains, lawyer says
The cause of the crash has not been confirmed, but a preliminary report released earlier this month by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found that the cockpit cutoff switches for fuel supply to both of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner's engines were switched, one after another, within one second, leading to both engines losing thrust.
James Healy-Pratt, an aviation lawyer representing a number of U.K. families, said the remains of at least 12 British victims of the crash had been repatriated to the U.K., but that two of them had been misidentified.
"There was one family who believed they had accompanied their loved one back from India, having gone out there to give DNA for the identification, and then (when they returned to the U.K.) were informed that the remains in the casket were nothing to do with them," Healy-Pratt told CBS News.
Healy-Pratt said the mistakes were discovered when the Inner West London coroner, Dr. Fiona Wilcox, sought to verify the victims' identities by matching their DNA to samples provided by the families.
"The first two caskets that arrived into the country — Dr. Wilcox and her team, assiduous as always, decided to check the verification and identity, and they discovered that DNA had been commingled in one of the caskets, which wasn't related to the person in the casket or the other person," Healy-Pratt said.
Healy-Pratt said the family of one of the victims had to cancel funeral plans after being told the remains they thought belonged to their loved one were actually those of an unknown individual.
"It's a double psychological trauma. It's one thing to lose a loved one, but then you go to India, you sit in a hotel, you give your DNA, you pray to God that there'll be a DNA match. You're then told there is. You're assured everything's fine and certified. You come back, and then you're told either there's more remains in the casket than just your loved one, or there are no remains, in spite of having been certified, and we don't know who this is," Healy-Pratt told CBS News.
Indian officials cited by local media soon after the crash said that, given the level of the destruction at the site and the extent to which the wreckage was burned, DNA testing would be required to confirm the final death toll from both the plane and from the buildings at the site in Ahmedabad.
"We have seen the report and have been working closely with the U.K. side from the moment these concerns and issues were brought to our attention," Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Shri Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement Wednesday. "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 U.K. authorities on addressing any concerns related to this issue."
Healy-Pratt said the statement from the Indian Foreign Ministry statement was "simply not good enough."
"It lacks specifics. It lacks any detailed explanation of the chain of custody of the remains from the time of identification to DNA matching to placing in caskets. It lacks any assurances that there may be remains, whether mislabeled, unidentified or identified, still in India," he said.
"The families want to draw a line under their emotional distress that's come out from this and so that requires detailed hard work by the Indian authorities to provide assurances that there are no further remains of British nationals either unidentified, identified or mislabeled, misidentified in India. And the line will not be drawn until that cast iron assurance is provided. And at the moment, it's not forthcoming," he said.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are set to meet in London this week, and Healy-Pratt said he hoped this issue would make it onto their agenda.
Healy-Pratt also said that, in addition to seeking the remains of their loved ones, the British families want to know the cause of the Air India crash, so their lawyers are independently investigating. The families, Healy-Pratt said, want to make sure any safety recommendations that come from formal probes are implemented internationally.
"And then finally, they want financial justice," Healy-Pratt said.
He said the families legal team had "already made an approach to the lawyers for Air India in London, and we're progressing claims there in the High Court. And we'll also be filing an action against Boeing in the U.S. courts to get more information about these fuel control cutoff switches, because they do have a checkered history."Arshad R. Zargar
contributed to this report.
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