British families, waiting for the remains of relatives aboard the London-bound Air India 171 plane that crashed soon after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport, are expecting confirmation on DNA matches after high-level India-UK government talks, their legal team has said.
According to PTI Keystone Law, which has been working with aviation experts to assist many of the families who lost loved ones in the June 12 crash, called for urgency in the process this week.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s UK visit last week, Downing Street had confirmed that Prime Minister Keir Starmer had discussed the Air India plane crash during their bilateral talks against the backdrop of UK media reports of mislabelling of some remains repatriated to Britain.
“The UK and Indian governments have held high-level talks, as a result of the international media coverage of this problem,” said James Healy-Pratt, Aviation Partner at Keystone Law.
“It is believed that some matched DNA remains may now have been located in India. Confirmation is awaited,” he said.
The 241 passengers and crew who died in the disaster included 52 British nationals, with two out of 12 caskets repatriated to the UK for last rites found to be incorrectly identified.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had responded to the UK reports to stress that 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 MEA’s official spokesperson said in a statement last month.
Asked to estimate the scale of the issue, Keystone Law said of a sample of 12 caskets repatriated from India to the UK, two were mislabelled, mishandled and misidentified”.
“Extrapolated out with an unacceptable error rate of 15 per cent, that would suggest 40 sets of remains may have been mislabelled, mishandled and misidentified. That is a known unknown, and many of the families’ loved ones have been cremated already,” said Healy-Pratt
