Families sent wrong bodies after Air India disaster

Families of UK residents killed in last month’s Air India disaster have been sent the wrong bodies in repatriation blunders.

The Daily Mail reports that at least two cases of mistaken identity had come to light, with one family having to abandon a funeral after being informed their coffin contained an unknown body.

In another case, a coffin contained “co-mingled” remains of more than one person killed in the flight 171 crash at Ahmedabad in western India on June 12.

The scandal has sparked top-level inquiries in both the UK and India, the Mail reports, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to raise concerns with counterpart Narendra Modi this week.

There were 52 British citizens killed among the 261 people who died after the plane lost power and crashed into a residential area soon after it lifted off to fly to London.

All but one of the 242 people on board died as well as 19 people on the ground.

Aviation lawyer James Healy-Pratt has been engaged to represent UK-based people impacted by the tragedy, with the remains of 12 people repatriated so far.

“I’ve been sitting down in the homes of these lovely British families over the last month, and the first thing they want is their loved ones back,” he told the Mail.

“But some of them 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.”

Healy-Pratt said the family which had received the wrong body had been left “in limbo” since the devastating discovery was made.

“(They) have no one to bury because it was the wrong person in their casket.

“And if isn’t their relative, the question is, who is it in that coffin? Presumably it’s another passenger and their relatives have been given the wrong remains.

“The coroner also has a problem because she has an unidentified person in her jurisdiction.”

Investigations continue into how the disaster unfolded, with mounting attention on the actions of lead pilot Captain Sumeet Sabharwal.

Some experts who have reviewed the initial report from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) believe a pilot on turned off two switches controlling fuel flow to the plane’s engines.

The first was moved three seconds after lift off and the other one second later, the AAIB report found, before being turned back on a further 10 seconds later.

Fingers have been pointed at Captain Sabharwal because his younger co-pilot, Clive Kunder, would have had his “hands full” while flying the plane.

Air India’s inspection of the locking feature on the fuel control switches of its existing Boeing 787 aircraft found no issues, an internal communication circulated within the airline said on July 17.

India’s aviation regulator ordered the country’s airlines this week to investigate the locking feature on the switches of several Boeing models.

The order came after Boeing notified operators that the fuel switch locks on its jets were safe.

However, it was in line with a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2018, which recommended inspection of the locks to ensure they could not be moved accidentally.

Air India’s probe found no problems with the locking mechanism.

“Over the weekend, our Engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft,” the airline’s flight operations department said in a communication to its pilots.

“The inspections have been completed and no issues were found.”

A spokesperson for the UK government told the Mail formal identification of the bodies was a “matter for the Indian authorities”.

“We understand that this is an extremely distressing time for the families, and our thoughts remain with them,” they said.