Air India crash victim’s son says he received wrong remains

Other remains were found in Shobhana Patel’s casket after her body was returned to the UK, her son says

All remains were handled with “utmost professionalism” and dignity, India’s foreign ministry said, and that it was working with UK officials to address concerns.

The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday that the wrong bodies were being sent to loved ones following the crash which killed 260 people shortly after take-off in early June.

Miten Patel, whose father also died in the crash, said the coroner identified the mixed-up remains and left him to worry: “How many others are in there?”

The son of a woman killed in the Air India plane crash has told the BBC “other remains” were found in her casket after her body was returned to the UK.

Ashok and Shobhana Patel were travelling home to visit their sons and grandchildren on 12 June. After the Gatwick-bound plane crashed in Ahmedabad, western India, they were among the first victims to be returned home.

Their son Miten said the mix-up was “obviously very upsetting,” even though he acknowledged that mistakes happen.

“People were tired and there was a lot of pressure. But there has to be a level of responsibility that you’re sending the right bodies to the UK.

“How do I know there aren’t other remains in the casket with her?”

The Daily Mail reported two cases in which the wrong remains were allegedly returned to loved ones in the UK.

One apparently saw a family receive the wrong body entirely, while another was said to involve the remains of several people placed in the same casket.

India’s foreign ministry said that they were aware of the report “and have been working closely with the UK side from the moment these concerns and issues were brought to our attention”.

The statement continued: “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 UK authorities on addressing any concerns related to this issue.”

The Indian government is working closely with U.K. authorities to “address concerns” raised by an aviation lawyer about families bereaved after the June 12 Ahmedabad Air India crash, receiving wrongly identified last remains, including in one case where remains of more than one person were placed in the same casket.

British newspaper Daily Mail reported that relatives of one victim had to abandon funeral plans after being informed that their coffin contained the body of an unknown passenger.

Also Read | Families of 47 victims of Air India 171 crash victims receive interim payout; lawyers warn against forgoing rights for full compensation

In another case, the “commingled” remains of more than one person killed in the crash were mistakenly placed in the same casket and had to be separated before the burial could go ahead.

“In the wake of the tragic crash, the concerned authorities had carried our 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 the issue,” Randhir Jaiswal, Spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs posted on X.

Daily Mail quoted James Healy-Pratt, an aviation lawyer representing many of the British families say saying, “some have got the wrong remains and they are clearly distraught over this. It has been going on for a couple of weeks [and] I think these families deserve an explanation.”

Also Read | Air India Ahmedabad plane crash victims: Tales of grief and loss

The mix up emerged when the Inner West London coroner Dr. Fiona Wilcox sought to verify the repatriated Britons’ identities by matching their DNA with samples provided by the families, the Daily Mail reported.

There were 260 lives lost in the Boeing 787-8 crash. 241 out of the 242 aboard the flight from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick were killed 32 seconds after take off. These included 181 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals, one Canadian.

The Indian government has said that it is “working closely with the UK side” after families of two Air India crash victims alleged that they received the wrong bodies. The allegations were made by a lawyer representing the families, who said DNA tests showed discrepancies in at least two caskets. Reacting to the claims, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the identification of victims was done “as per established protocols and technical requirements.”

Investigation underway Identification done as per established protocols: MEA He added, “All mortal remains were handled with utmost professionalism and due regard for the dignity of the deceased.” The alleged mix-ups were discovered after Inner West London coroner Dr. Fiona Wilcox tried to verify the remains of British nationals transported from India by matching their DNA with samples provided by the families. In one case, a family had to cancel funeral arrangements after learning that the coffin contained an unidentified passenger’s body.

Crash summary Air India flight crashed on June 12 The Air India flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, had taken off from Ahmedabad for London on June 12. The aircraft crashed into BJ Medical College’s residential quarters in the Meghaninagar area shortly after takeoff, resulting in a massive fire. Out of the 242 people on board, only one survived; 52 were British nationals. After the crash, 12 to 13 sets of human remains were sent back to the UK.

Ongoing investigation Families of victims accuse airline of coercive tactics for compensation Air India is probing the alleged body mix-up but hasn’t confirmed the allegations. The airline was not involved in identifying or handing over the bodies; this was done by a government civil hospital in Ahmedabad. Earlier this month, families of victims accused Air India of using coercive tactics for compensation. They claimed they were forced to fill out complex legal questionnaires under threat of no compensation.

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 cockpit cutoff switches for fuel supply to both of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner’s engines had been switched, one after another, within one second, leading to both engines losing thrust.

James Healy-Pratt, an aviation lawyer who said he was representing a number of U.K. families, told CBS News 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.

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“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.

Forensic experts and DGCA officials searching for evidence at Air India Plane crash site, June 13, 2025, in Ahmedabad, India. / Credit: Raju Shinde/Hindustan Times/Getty

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.

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“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.”

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“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.

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“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.”

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New Delhi: India on Wednesday trashed a British media report which claimed that two families in the UK received wrong bodies of victims of the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad.

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The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said all mortal remains were handled with utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the deceased.

“We have seen the report and have been working closely with the UK side from the moment these concerns and issues were brought to our attention,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

“In the wake of the tragic crash, the concerned authorities had carried out identification of victims as per established protocols and technical requirements,” he said.

Jaiswal was responding to media queries regarding a report in the Daily Mail on the June 12 Air India crash in which 241 people on board were killed, including 53 British nationals.

“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,” he said.

The British newspaper, citing versions of two unnamed families, claimed that the repatriation of Britons killed in the crash has been “horrifically bungled”.

Bereaved families are suffering fresh heartache because the remains of their loved ones were wrongly identified before being flown home, it alleged.