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CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Some Air India victims' families in UK were sent wrong remains, lawyer says
FacebookTweetLink Authorities in India sent the wrong remains to some British families whose loved ones were killed in a plane crash last month, their lawyer has claimed, as relatives reckoned with the human cost of the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade. At least two UK nationals were discovered to have been misidentified after they were repatriated, according to James Healy-Pratt, an international aviation lawyer who is representing some of the British relatives of victims. In one case, a coroner in London discovered that the DNA of several bodies had been co-mingled in one of the caskets, Healy-Pratt told UK news agency PA Media. Dr Fiona Shaw 'picked up DNA anomalies' when the bodies were first repatriated, Healy-Pratt said. 'My understanding was that the co-mingling was at the very beginning, which alerted Dr Wilcox to the fact that she had to be 100% assiduous about checking the identification of the incoming remains,' the lawyer added. 'She was then able to determine that one particular loved one was not at all who the family thought they were,' said Healy-Pratt. All but one of 242 passengers and crew members were killed on June 12, after an Air India jet lost momentum and hurtled into a densely populated neighborhood in Ahmedabad, western India. The London-bound aircraft had barely left the runway of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport before it spun out of control and nosedived into the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel – also killing 19 people on the ground. Authorities have not yet released the definitive cause of the crash, but a preliminary report suggested that the fuel control switches in the cockpit of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner had been flipped, depriving the engines of power. In an audio recording from the black box, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he flipped the switches, according to the assessment by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau published last week. The other pilot responds that he did not. Moments later, the switches were flipped to turn the fuel supply back on. Both engines relit and one began to 'progress to recovery,' but it was too late to halt the plane's tumultuous descent. Of those killed on board, at least 169 were Indian nationals, seven were Portuguese and one was from Canada. The only survivor was Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, one of 53 UK passengers that day who told local media that he escaped by clinging onto a small space near the door by his seat. The relatives of three victims said they were 'deeply troubled' by the revelations on Wednesday, calling on authorities to act with 'care, co-ordination and respect.' 'Recent developments have only confirmed what many feared: that serious mistakes may have been made, and that the dignity and rights of victims and their families were not safeguarded as they should have been,' they said in a statement. The relatives of Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter Sara Nanabawa added that while they are 'confident' they received the 'correct bodies' - they were still 'deeply troubled by what this means for other families who may still be searching for certainty and closure.' 'This isn't just a personal tragedy; it is a collective one.' India's foreign ministry had been 'working closely with the UK side from the moment these concerns and issues' were raised, according to a spokesperson. Authorities conducted identification of victims using 'established protocols and technical requirements,' foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X on Wednesday. 'All mortal remains were handled with the utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the deceased,' Jaiswal added. 'We are continuing to work with the UK authorities on addressing any concerns related to this issue.' The case came on the heels of a meeting in London between India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart, Keir Starmer, as the two nations sign a landmark free trade agreement. Healy-Pratt, who is demanding 'financial justice' for the families, said he believes the allegations will be on the agenda for the talks this week.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Some Air India victims' families in UK were sent wrong remains, lawyer says
FacebookTweetLink Authorities in India sent the wrong remains to some British families whose loved ones were killed in a plane crash last month, their lawyer has claimed, as relatives reckoned with the human cost of the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade. At least two UK nationals were discovered to have been misidentified after they were repatriated, according to James Healy-Pratt, an international aviation lawyer who is representing some of the British relatives of victims. In one case, a coroner in London discovered that the DNA of several bodies had been co-mingled in one of the caskets, Healy-Pratt told UK news agency PA Media. Dr Fiona Shaw 'picked up DNA anomalies' when the bodies were first repatriated, Healy-Pratt said. 'My understanding was that the co-mingling was at the very beginning, which alerted Dr Wilcox to the fact that she had to be 100% assiduous about checking the identification of the incoming remains,' the lawyer added. 'She was then able to determine that one particular loved one was not at all who the family thought they were,' said Healy-Pratt. All but one of 242 passengers and crew members were killed on June 12, after an Air India jet lost momentum and hurtled into a densely populated neighborhood in Ahmedabad, western India. The London-bound aircraft had barely left the runway of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport before it spun out of control and nosedived into the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel – also killing 19 people on the ground. Authorities have not yet released the definitive cause of the crash, but a preliminary report suggested that the fuel control switches in the cockpit of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner had been flipped, depriving the engines of power. In an audio recording from the black box, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he flipped the switches, according to the assessment by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau published last week. The other pilot responds that he did not. Moments later, the switches were flipped to turn the fuel supply back on. Both engines relit and one began to 'progress to recovery,' but it was too late to halt the plane's tumultuous descent. Of those killed on board, at least 169 were Indian nationals, seven were Portuguese and one was from Canada. The only survivor was Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, one of 53 UK passengers that day who told local media that he escaped by clinging onto a small space near the door by his seat. The relatives of three victims said they were 'deeply troubled' by the revelations on Wednesday, calling on authorities to act with 'care, co-ordination and respect.' 'Recent developments have only confirmed what many feared: that serious mistakes may have been made, and that the dignity and rights of victims and their families were not safeguarded as they should have been,' they said in a statement. The relatives of Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter Sara Nanabawa added that while they are 'confident' they received the 'correct bodies' - they were still 'deeply troubled by what this means for other families who may still be searching for certainty and closure.' 'This isn't just a personal tragedy; it is a collective one.' India's foreign ministry had been 'working closely with the UK side from the moment these concerns and issues' were raised, according to a spokesperson. Authorities conducted identification of victims using 'established protocols and technical requirements,' foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X on Wednesday. 'All mortal remains were handled with the utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the deceased,' Jaiswal added. 'We are continuing to work with the UK authorities on addressing any concerns related to this issue.' The case came on the heels of a meeting in London between India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart, Keir Starmer, as the two nations sign a landmark free trade agreement. Healy-Pratt, who is demanding 'financial justice' for the families, said he believes the allegations will be on the agenda for the talks this week.
CBS News
11 hours ago
- CBS News
Some Air India plane crash victims' families in U.K. were sent the wrong remains, lawyer says
London — The families of some British victims of the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad have discovered that remains repatriated to the U.K. were wrongly identified as being their loved ones, a lawyer who says his firm is representing over 20 victims' families told CBS News. Of the 242 people on board the Air India flight from Ahmedabad to London's Gatwick airport that crashed on June 12 just minutes after takeoff, 52 were British citizens. 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.
