The mother of a man killed in the Air India plane crash has said her family is “heartbroken” after it was revealed her son's remains had been misidentified, The Sunday Times reports.
On June 12, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner en route to London collided with a medical academy shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport, killing 241 people.
Of these, approximately 169 were Indian and 52 were British, making the accident one of the deadliest in the UK in terms of fatalities.
Among the British victims were Fionghal Greenlaw-Mick (39) and his husband Jamie (45), who were driving home after celebrating their wedding anniversary in India.
Mr Greenlaw-Meek's mother, Amanda Donaghy, told the paper that after the tragedy she flew to India to collect her son's body and gave a DNA sample to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital to help with identification.
After the match on June 20, she returned to Britain with Mr Greenlaw-Meek's coffin.
However, on July 5, as the families of Mr Greenlaw-Meek and his husband were preparing a joint funeral, police informed Ms Donaghy that repeat DNA tests in the UK had shown that Mr Greenlaw-Meek's remains were not in the coffin.
“We cannot understand who is buried in this coffin,” she said in an interview with The Sunday Times.
“I already had my suspicions, but hearing this was a complete pain.”
“It’s scary that this happened,” she stressed.
“We now insist that the British authorities make every effort to sort this out and bring Fionghala home.”
It recently emerged that the coffin of another British woman sent home, 71-year-old Shobhana Patel, contains fragments of several people, The Sunday Times reports.
Ms Patel died along with her husband Ashok (74) as they returned from a Hindu pilgrimage.
Their son Miten Patel told the newspaper: “There may have been a mistake.”
“But according to religious norms, we are obliged to make sure that these are truly my mother’s remains, and not someone else’s.”
“It's crucial for us to know 100% that it's really her.”
Shobhana and Ashok Patel were buried last week, The Sunday Times reported.
International aviation lawyer James Healy-Pratt, whose firm Keystone Law represents the families of the Air India victims, told Times Radio that the identification issues raised concerns about the overall number of fatalities who could be misidentified.
“We know that 12 coffins were transported from India to the UK,” he said.
“Of these, two were identified incorrectly.”
“If we extrapolate, out of 240 remains, up to 40 could be mislabeled.”
“This is a huge figure, but the accuracy is unknown.”
“And so far, the Indian authorities have not disclosed the data or provided assistance, so the families have put pressure on the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office.”
“This was raised at the Chequers meeting between Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Modi on Thursday.”
“Families expect to know as early as next week what specific steps have been taken in India to ensure evidence-based certainty.”
Mr Healy-Pratt previously told PA that UK agencies would not be making any claims for errors.
The only surviving passenger was Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who had previously called his rescue a “miracle” in The Sun newspaper, but admitted that he was terrified of his brother Ajay's failed rescue attempt.
A preliminary report by the Indian Air Accident Investigation Bureau found that after takeoff, both of the plane's fuel switches instantly moved to the “off” position, cutting off fuel flow to the engines.
This raised questions about the possible malicious nature of the incident.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
