14 hours ago
‘Neither death nor process of science could separate them'
Among the passengers of the London-bound Air India flight AI-171, which crashed soon after take-off from Ahmedabad airport on June 12, were British-Indian couple Ashok and Shobhana Patel.
Their sons, Miten and Hemen, travelled from the UK to collect their remains and were told on June 15 that their father's body was the 98th to be identified through DNA analysis.
With several families still waiting for the remains of their members to be identified — many having collected the body of one of their relatives and still awaiting news about the others — the brothers decided to return to the UK with their father's body and then come back later for their mother. However, by coincidence, they later got a call saying that the 99th body to be identified was their mother's.
The two brothers immediately reached the control room and saw their mother's name on the bulletin board.
'Our parents were always together. Neither death could separate them, nor the processes of science. When my father's DNA match was done and we were preparing to take his body, my mother's soul must have told my father's soul, 'Ashok, I will not go home alone. Whether alive or dead, I will come with you as always,'' said Miten Patel in a video released by the state government.
Doctors said this was not the first such case in which bodies of relatives have been identified together. An official said body numbers 60 and 61 were of two sisters.
