After the crash of Air India flight AI-171, it has now come to light that some relatives of the deceased in Britain were sent the bodies of someone else instead of their relatives.
According to media reports, two British families came to know after identifying the body that the bodies handed over to them were not that of their own relatives.
The families grieved by this tragedy are now demanding answers, while British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to raise this issue with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his state visit next week.
According to one British newspaper, when Dr. Fiona Wilcox, coroner of London’s Inner West region, matched the DNA of the bodies of the victims with the samples given by their families, the mistake came to light.
In one case, a family preparing for the funeral was shocked when they were told that the body they received was not of their relative, but of an unknown passenger.
In another case, the remains of more than one person were placed in the same coffin, i.e. “mixed bodies”. Later, these remains had to be separated before cremation.
This incident happened after the crash of Air India flight AI-171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick on June 12, 2025. A total of 261 people were killed in this accident, of which 52 were British citizens.
Aviation law expert James Healy-Pratt, who is representing many British families of the victims, described the case as a “serious human error”. He told the media, “For the last one month I have been visiting these families. They have only one question – have they been returned the bodies of their loved ones? But some have received the wrong bodies, and they are completely devastated. This situation has been going on for weeks and they deserve to know the full truth.”
He told a British Newspaper: “Family X has no body to bury because the coffin contained someone else’s body. If it was not their relative, then the question arises whose body is this? Possibly another passenger, whose body may also have been handed over to the wrong family.”
Dr. Wilcox has so far launched an inquest into the 12 dead, but he has refused to comment publicly on the issue. It is believed that complex investigations are being carried out to find out where the whole process of identifying the bodies and getting them home went wrong.
“The formal identification of the bodies is the responsibility of the Indian authorities. We understand that this is an extremely painful time for the families of the victims, and our condolences are with them,” a government spokesman was quoted saying.
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