The repatriation of Britons killed in the Air India disaster has been horrifically bungled, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Bereaved families are suffering fresh heartache because the remains of their loved ones were wrongly identified before being flown home.
Relatives of one victim had to abandon funeral plans after being informed that their coffin contained the body of an unknown passenger rather than their family member.
In another distressing case, the ‘commingled’ remnants of more than one person killed in the crash were mistakenly placed in the same casket.
They had to be separated before the internment could go ahead last weekend.
The shocking blunders only emerged when Inner West London coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox sought to verify the repatriated Britons’ identities by matching their DNA with samples provided by the families.
Tonight, a top-level inquiry into the scandal is underway in London and India, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to raise concerns with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on his state visit to Britain this week.
Though two instances of mistaken identity have so far come to light, there are fears that more such errors could have been made, leaving families under a shadow of uncertainty.
Pictured: Debris at the site of a plane crash near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport
Pictured: Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, the sole survivor of the Air India flight 171 crash
Pictured: Thick black smoke billowing from a residential area after Air India flight 171 crashed in Ahmedabad
Of the 261 people who died when Air India flight 171 lost power and crashed, seconds after leaving Ahmedabad for London Gatwick, 52 were returning Britons.
And while some victims were either speedily cremated or buried in India, in accordance with their religious beliefs, aviation lawyer James Healy-Pratt, who represents many of the British families, says the remains of at least 12 have been repatriated.
Mr Healy-Pratt was enlisted to uncover the full facts behind the catastrophe – caused when the Dreamliner’s fuel supply was either intentionally or accidentally switched off, according to a preliminary report – and fight for compensation in the courts.
But this week he is investigating the botched identification process.
‘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.’
Though the family who received ‘commingled’ remains had been able to have them separated and hold a funeral service, he said, the second set of relatives – whom he called Family X – had been left ‘in limbo’.
‘Family X 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.
Pictured: People carrying the body of a victim from the crash site after Air India flight 171 crashed in Ahmedabad
Pictured: The Air India flight 171 stuck on the side of the building after the crash
Pictured: The aftermath of the Air India plane crash. Within three days the remains of virtually all the victims were believed to have been found, although the 1500C heat had burnt most beyond recognition
‘The coroner also has a problem because she has an unidentified person in her jurisdiction.’
The lawyer is now trying to establish the precise chain of events in the recovery and identification process, beginning when the bodies were pulled from the jet’s smouldering wreckage and ending when they reached Britain.
It will be no easy task. For arriving in India in the aftermath of the disaster on June 12, grieving British families were incensed by the chaotic ground operation and immediately recognised the danger of misidentification.
One relative criticised the ‘lack of transparency and oversight in the identification and handling of remains’, and there were calls for a British-run ID unit to be flown in.
‘Our loved ones were British citizens. They deserved better in life. They certainly deserved better in death,’ was one embittered refrain.
The operation to recover remains began soon after the plane crashed into a medical hostel and houses near Ahmedabad airport. It was led by local recovery teams from Ahmedabad’s police and fire departments and the state disaster response force.
They used sniffer dogs and hi-tech search equipment and were aided by local volunteers who sifted the twisted, smouldering metal with their hands.
Within three days the remains of virtually all the victims were believed to have been found, although the 1500C heat had burnt most beyond recognition. Others were mutilated or fragmented by the force of the impact.
Pictured: Rescue workers at the site of the crash. The repatriation of Britons killed in the Air India disaster has been horrifically bungled, the Daily Mail can reveal
Pictured: Ambulances waiting to transfer the dead bodies of victims from the hospital complex in Ahmedabad on June 14, 2025
It meant that many families received their remains from the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad – which served as the central ID hub – in a plastic container, rather than a coffin.
Relatives were asked to supply DNA samples to be used as identification but in the most severe cases they had to be matched against dental records.
Families could only rely on officials to carry out the process accurately and label the containers correctly.
‘Nobody looked at the remains. We weren’t allowed to,’ said Altaf Taju, from Blackburn, whose London-based parents Adam, 72 and Hasina, 70, perished along with their son-on-law Altafhusen Patel, 51.
‘They just said, “This is your mother or father”, and gave us a paper label with an ID number on it. We had to take their word for it. It’s horrific that this could have happened, but what could anyone do?’
Mr Taju was told of the mix-up by a police liaison officer. He takes comfort from the fact that his parents and brother-in-law were not involved in the confusion because they were buried quickly, in India, to comply with their Muslim faith.
By June 28, Indian authorities claimed DNA tests had conformed the identities of all 260 fatalities. Those victims flown back to Britain were transported by Air India, though some families complained of unnecessary delays and lack of information from the airline.
Approached by the Mail, Dr Wilcox said it would be inappropriate for her to comment.
Pictured: A policeman and medics transferring bodies of victims onto an ambulance after the Air India Flight 171 crash
Pictured: Debris at the site of a plane crash near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad
Mr Healy-Pratt added: ‘On the known evidence, the chain of custody of these lost loved ones was unacceptably poor.
‘We are investigating the causes of those failures and demanding answers on behalf of these deserving British families.
‘We await formal responses from Air India, and their emergency response contractors – Kenyons International Emergency Services.
‘The families are also directly in contact with their MPs, the FCDO and the offices of the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary- ahead of Premier Modi’s visit to London this week.’
Tonight government sources said British disaster victim identification experts were deployed to Ahmedabad ‘to support the UK’s consular response’ and to ‘understand in-country processes for victim identification, mortuary operations and support services’.
These experts supplied information on those who have been repatriated to coroner Dr Wilcox, who opened and adjourned inquests into 12 deaths on July 10.
A government spokesperson said: ‘Formal identification of bodies is a matter for the Indian authorities. We understand that this is an extremely distressing time for the families, and our thoughts remain with them.’
