Latest news with #FiongalGreenlawMeek
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Grieving British mother of Air India crash victim tells of her agony after being sent the WRONG body
A grieving mother whose son died in the Air India plane disaster travelled thousands of miles to collect his remains - only to be sent home with the wrong body. Amanda Donaghey lost her son Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, 39, and his husband, Jamie, 45, when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick crashed just seconds after takeoff on June 12 - claiming the lives of 260 people. The couple had been returning to Britain after celebrating their wedding anniversary in India when the plane unexpectedly crashed, killing all but one passenger onboard. The aircraft had turned into a huge fireball on impact but Ms Donaghey, 66, was determined to bring back her son's remains, handing over a sample of her blood in a bid to find matching DNA, The Sunday Times reports. Things did not look promising, however, and three days came and went without a word from officials handling the bodies. In the meantime, Jamie's remains were identified and sent home to the UK. But just as the mother was losing hope, they got back to her with news that there had been a 'match' for Fiongal. Ms Donaghey was relieved - the discovery meant she could bring her son's remains back and lay them next to his husband's. The family set about organising funerals for the two men with the mother assured on her return to the UK that Fiongal's remains were in the casket. Then, a heartbreaking development. The British coroner had conducted another DNA test which found that the remains in her son's coffin were not his after all. Ms Donaghey said that the identity of the remains is still unknown, describing the confusion as 'appalling'. Fiongal studied at the Royal College of Art and went on to work as a fashion designer, fronting design houses in London and Asia. He then got into sprituality, yoga and reiki and established the Wellness Foundry, dedicated to such topics, in 2018. The business founder married Jamie in 2022 and had taken to social media to describe their 'magical experience' in India the night before they caught the fateful flight. They even posted a short clip from the airport departure lounge just hours ahead of the journey back, which would see them sit in seats 22A and 22B, bidding farewell to the country. His mother was not aware he was on the plane, believing Fiongal to have flown back to the UK two days prior. After taking a ride on her horse, she got a phone call from Fiongal's father who told her the pair had been travelling back on the aircraft. Two days later, Ms Donaghey took a tricky trip to India from her home in the south of France, where she had moved 22 years ago. She was greeted by a British High Commission crisis management team on her arrival in Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Despite being exhausted, the mother headed straight to the nearby Civil Hospital to take a DNA test in a converted classroom. Ms Donaghey then paid a visit BJ Medical College hostel, which had been hit by the Air India plane, but was not allowed to go through the final cordon as the aircraft's tail was still lodged in a building there. 'It was like a bomb site,' she said. 'You would think it was from a war scene, but there were still these small birds twittering.' Also out there was Miten Patel who was determined to bring home his parents Ashok and Shobhana, who had been married since the 70s. The financial advisor and retired microbiologist had been in the country for a yatra, a religious visit geared towards helping people to find peace when they die. Ashok and Shobhana, pictured, had been married since the 70s and were in the country for a yatra, a religious visit geared towards helping people to find peace when they die Mr Patel was handed several of his parents' items including Ashok's shirt and Shobhana's swan necklace. After successfully retrieving the couple's remains, he later discovered 'other remains' in the casket said to contain his mother's body. He was finally able to bury her last week, describing the successful end to the process as a 'miracle'. Ms Donaghey has been going through a similar ordeal, but one that remains unresolved. After initially being informed of the 'match' on June 20, she spoke with the British High Commission and hospital representatives, as well as an Avon and Somerset Police officer, acting as a disaster victim investigator. She said: 'I was told they had found part of Fiongal but not all of him. I said I wanted to stay until they had finished looking.' But on her return to the crash site, Ms Donaghey was handed the devastating news that there was nothing left to be found in the wreckage. Things took an even more concerning turn when she was told about Shobhana's case, which had seen various remains get mixed up. On June 28, she headed back to Gatwick on an Air India flight in a bid to get Fiongal's remains to a British hospital with better preserving standards than those in India. They were handed over to Dr Fiona Wilcox, senior coroner for Inner West London, and in the meantime Ms Donaghey was given support by her sister in Cambridgeshire, as well as police family liaison officers. Six days after her return, the mother was handed the heart-wrenching news that the remains in her son's coffin were not his at all. At a meeting attended by Fiongal's father, sister and brother, family liaison officers said: 'We don't have Fiongal. We have carried out the DNA tests and we do not have Fiongal.' Amanda said: 'I had my doubts but to be told that was heartbreaking.' Despite realising that their ambition to bury Fiongal and Jamie alongside one another was now impossible, Ms Donaghey and her family have not given up on trying to locate his remains, ringing the Foreign Office each day looking for answers. Some 53 of the 242 people on the ill-fated flight were British but, as many were of Indian heritage and thus buried in the country of the crash, just 12 sets of remains were delivered back to the UK. The remaining 10 were all matches, but it is still not known for sure whether the identities of the bodies that stayed in India are correct. James Healy-Pratt, an international aviation lawyer and partner with Keystone Law, is representing 20 bereaved families and confirmed they were in contact with Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister's office and Foreign Secretary David Lammy. A government spokesperson said: 'We understand that this is an extremely distressing time for the families, and our thoughts remain with them. Formal identification of bodies is a matter for the Indian authorities. 'We continue to liaise with the government of Gujarat and the government of India on behalf of the Inner West London senior coroner to support the coronial process.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
A Woman's Son Died in the Air India Crash, and Now She Says She Was Given the Wrong Body: 'An Appalling Thing to Have Happened'
'We don't know what poor person is in that casket,' Amanda Donaghey said of the body she believed to be her son's After losing her son in the Air India plane crash, a grieving mother traveled to India to bring his body home. But the coffin she returned with, she claims, contained the remains of a different victim. On June 12, Air India Flight AI171, a London-bound Boeing 787-8 aircraft, crashed just after takeoff in India, resulting in the deaths of 241 people — everyone on board but one. Amanda Donaghey's son, Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, 39, and his husband Jamie, 45, were on the flight, returning home to the United Kingdom after celebrating their wedding anniversary in India. Donaghey, who lives in France, traveled to the crash site to see where her son had spent his final moments, and to bring his body home — but the remains she brought back to London were not her son's, she claimed in a new The Sunday Times interview published on July 26. Donaghey, 66, first arrived in India five days after the crash, on June 17, and gave blood in order to find a DNA match among the remains of the 241 — 229 passengers and 12 crew members. On June 20, as she began to lose hope, someone informed her a 'match' had been found, she told The Sunday Times. Believing his body would now be able to join the body of his husband, which had already been properly identified and brought home, Donaghey arrived in London Gatwick Airport 'with the assurance that Fiongal was in the casket,' she told The Sunday Times. But she claimed she would soon make a 'heartbreaking' discovery that disrupted the family's plan to have the couple rest together. As Donaghey and her family planned Greenlaw-Meek and Jamie's funerals, police allegedly informed her that a coroner in the U.K. had determined that the remains she had brought home were not her son's. It happened in early July, when family liaison officers set up a meeting with Donaghey, along with Greenlaw-Meek's father, sister and brother, and allegedly told the family, 'We don't have Fiongal. We have carried out the DNA tests and we do not have Fiongal,' according to The Sunday Times. 'I had my doubts, but to be told that was heartbreaking,' the grieving mother recalled to the outlet of the revelation. 'We don't know what poor person is in that casket. This is an appalling thing to have happened,' Donaghey added to The Sunday Times. 'And we would now like the British government to do everything in its power to find out, and bring Fiongal home.' As Donaghey continues her effort to bring her son's body home, she fears, however, it may now be an impossible feat. 'We have spent every day since then on the phone to the Foreign Office, trying to get a response on where Fiongal is,' Donaghey told The Sunday Times. 'All the time, I feel like I'm just standing on the edge of a black hole thinking, 'Has he been disposed of?' ' Greenlaw-Meek's loved ones are not the only ones in this situation. James Healy-Pratt, an aviation lawyer who said he is representing multiple U.K. families in the wake of the crash, previously told CBS News and The Daily Mail that the remains of two British victims had been misidentified. Speaking with CBS News, he described it as 'a double psychological trauma.' In a statement shared on July 23, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Shri Randhir Jaiswal said authorities 'have seen the report' about the mix-up and "have been working closely with the UK side from the moment these concerns and issues were brought to our attention.' "In the wake of the tragic crash, the concerned authorities had carried out identification of victims as per established protocols and technical requirements,' Jaiswal added. '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." In a statement to The Sunday Times, a U.K. government spokesperson said that "formal identification of bodies is a matter for the Indian authorities." 'We understand that this is an extremely distressing time for the families, and our thoughts remain with them," the spokesperson continued, in part. "We continue to liaise with the government of Gujarat and the government of India on behalf of the Inner West London senior coroner to support the coronial process.' Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. An official cause of the Air India Flight AI171 crash has not officially been released, but officials are currently investigating why the fuel to the engines was cut. The Ministry of Civil Aviation previously announced it was establishing a committee to investigate the incident, promising to assess "the root cause of the crash" and "contributing factors, including mechanical failure, human error, weather conditions, regulatory compliances and other reasons.' Read the original article on People
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Grieving mother of Air India crash victim is dealt agonising blow after being sent the WRONG body
A grieving mother whose son died in the Air India plane disaster travelled thousands of miles to collect his remains - only to be sent home with the wrong body. Amanda Donaghey lost her son Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, 39, and his husband, Jamie, 45, when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick crashed just seconds after takeoff on June 12 - claiming the lives of 260 people. The couple had been returning to Britain after celebrating their wedding anniversary in India when the plane unexpectedly crashed, killing all but one passenger onboard. The aircraft had turned into a huge fireball on impact but Ms Donaghey, 66, was determined to bring back her son's remains, handing over a sample of her blood in a bid to find matching DNA, The Sunday Times reports. Things did not look promising, however, and three days came and went without a word from officials handling the bodies. In the meantime, Jamie's remains were identified and sent home to the UK. But just as the mother was losing hope, they got back to her with news that there had been a 'match' for Fiongal. Ms Donaghey was relieved - the discovery meant she could bring her son's remains back and lay them next to his husband's. The family set about organising funerals for the two men with the mother assured on her return to the UK that Fiongal's remains were in the casket. Then, a heartbreaking development. The British coroner had conducted another DNA test which found that the remains in her son's coffin were not his after all. Ms Donaghey said that the identity of the remains is still unknown, describing the confusion as 'appalling'. Fiongal studied at the Royal College of Art and went on to work as a fashion designer, fronting design houses in London and Asia. He then got into sprituality, yoga and reiki and established the Wellness Foundry, dedicated to such topics, in 2018. The business founder married Jamie in 2022 and had taken to social media to describe their 'magical experience' in India the night before they caught the fateful flight. They even posted a short clip from the airport departure lounge just hours ahead of the journey back, which would see them sit in seats 22A and 22B, bidding farewell to the country. His mother was not aware he was on the plane, believing Fiongal to have flown back to the UK two days prior. After taking a ride on her horse, she got a phone call from Fiongal's father who told her the pair had been travelling back on the aircraft. Two days later, Ms Donaghey took a tricky trip to India from her home in the south of France, where she had moved 22 years ago. She was greeted by a British High Commission crisis management team on her arrival in Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Despite being exhausted, the mother headed straight to the nearby Civil Hospital to take a DNA test in a converted classroom. Ms Donaghey then paid a visit BJ Medical College hostel, which had been hit by the Air India plane, but was not allowed to go through the final cordon as the aircraft's tail was still lodged in a building there. 'It was like a bomb site,' she said. 'You would think it was from a war scene, but there were still these small birds twittering.' Also out there was Miten Patel who was determined to bring home his parents Ashok and Shobhana, who had been married since the 70s. The financial advisor and retired microbiologist had been in the country for a yatra, a religious visit geared towards helping people to find peace when they die. Ashok and Shobhana, pictured, had been married since the 70s and were in the country for a yatra, a religious visit geared towards helping people to find peace when they die Mr Patel was handed several of his parents' items including Ashok's shirt and Shobhana's swan necklace. After successfully retrieving the couple's remains, he later discovered 'other remains' in the casket said to contain his mother's body. He was finally able to bury her last week, describing the successful end to the process as a 'miracle'. Ms Donaghey has been going through a similar ordeal, but one that remains unresolved. After initially being informed of the 'match' on June 20, she spoke with the British High Commission and hospital representatives, as well as an Avon and Somerset Police officer, acting as a disaster victim investigator. She said: 'I was told they had found part of Fiongal but not all of him. I said I wanted to stay until they had finished looking.' But on her return to the crash site, Ms Donaghey was handed the devastating news that there was nothing left to be found in the wreckage. Things took an even more concerning turn when she was told about Shobhana's case, which had seen various remains get mixed up. On June 28, she headed back to Gatwick on an Air India flight in a bid to get Fiongal's remains to a British hospital with better preserving standards than those in India. They were handed over to Dr Fiona Wilcox, senior coroner for Inner West London, and in the meantime Ms Donaghey was given support by her sister in Cambridgeshire, as well as police family liaison officers. Six days after her return, the mother was handed the heart-wrenching news that the remains in her son's coffin were not his at all. At a meeting attended by Fiongal's father, sister and brother, family liaison officers said: 'We don't have Fiongal. We have carried out the DNA tests and we do not have Fiongal.' Amanda said: 'I had my doubts but to be told that was heartbreaking.' Despite realising that their ambition to bury Fiongal and Jamie alongside one another was now impossible, Ms Donaghey and her family have not given up on trying to locate his remains, ringing the Foreign Office each day looking for answers. Some 53 of the 242 people on the ill-fated flight were British but, as many were of Indian heritage and thus buried in the country of the crash, just 12 sets of remains were delivered back to the UK. The remaining 10 were all matches, but it is still not known for sure whether the identities of the bodies that stayed in India are correct. James Healy-Pratt, an international aviation lawyer and partner with Keystone Law, is representing 20 bereaved families and confirmed they were in contact with Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister's office and Foreign Secretary David Lammy. A government spokesperson said: 'We understand that this is an extremely distressing time for the families, and our thoughts remain with them. Formal identification of bodies is a matter for the Indian authorities. 'We continue to liaise with the government of Gujarat and the government of India on behalf of the Inner West London senior coroner to support the coronial process.'
The Guardian
3 days 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.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Telegraph
‘My son died in the Air India crash. I was sent back the wrong body'
The mother of a British Air India crash victim has said her family was 'heartbroken' after receiving news that the remains of her son were wrongly identified. The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport on June 12, killing 241 people on board. Some 169 Indian passengers and 52 British nationals were killed, making it one of the deadliest plane crashes in terms of the number of British fatalities. Among the British victims were Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, 39, and his husband Jamie, 45, who had been returning to Britain after celebrating their wedding anniversary in India. Amanda Donaghey, Mr Greenlaw-Meek's mother, told The Sunday Times that she flew to India after the crash to find her son's remains, providing a DNA sample at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital to assist the identification process. Following a match on June 20 last year, she returned to the UK with Mr Greenlaw-Meek's coffin. But on July 5, as Mr Greenlaw-Meek and his husband's families prepared to bury the married couple together, police told Ms Donaghey that DNA tests carried out in the UK showed that Mr Greenlaw-Meek'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. 'And we would now like the British Government to do everything in its power to find out, and bring Fiongal home.' It was revealed last week that the coffin of 71-year-old Shobhana Patel, another repatriated British victim, contained remains of multiple people. Mrs Patel was killed alongside 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 done. But for religious reasons we need to make sure my mother is my mother and not somebody else's remains. 'Knowing 100 per cent that it is my mum is very important to us.' Shobhana and Ashok Patel were laid to rest last week. James Healey-Pratt, an international aviation lawyer whose firm Keystone Law is representing families of victims of the Air India crash, has told Times Radio that the identification issues have raised concerns over the total number of victims whose identities may have been misattributed. 'We know that 12 caskets were repatriated from India to the UK,' he said. '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. So that's a very large number, but we simply don't know. 'And to date, the Indian authorities have not been transparent or helpful about that, which is why there was pressure put on by the families to the FCO and the Prime Minister's office. 'So 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.' It is understood no blame is being put on any British agency for the blunders, Mr Healy-Pratt previously said. The only surviving passenger on the plane was Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British businessman from Leicester, who previously told The Sun it was a 'miracle' he was alive but felt 'terrible' he could not save his brother Ajay. A preliminary report into the incident from India's aircraft accident investigation bureau found both of the plane's fuel switches moved to the 'cut-off' position 'immediately' after take-off, stopping fuel supply to the engine. It has raised questions over whether the crash was deliberate.
