India Responds to UK Report of ‘Wrong Body’ Sent in Air India Crash Repatriation

On Wednesday, India reacted to a report regarding bungling in the identification of the bodies of Britons who were killed in the crash of Air India flight 171 by stating that it is in collaboration with UK in order to respond to the concerns and issues.

The crash of the Boeing 787 on June 12 in Ahmedabad City killed 242 persons of the 242 people on board, other than one, who returned alive, together with 19 persons in the ground. The number of simply dead British citizens was fifty-two. The plane became powerless and went into crash shortly after taking off Ahmedabad to London.

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On Tuesday, Britain Daily Mail Newspaper reported that remains of two of the British victims were identified in error before being flown back to the United Kingdom.

Reacting to the report of the Daily Mail, External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that the authorities in India are collaborating with their UK counterparts in the matter. Indian reply was hours after the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi started a two-country trip to the UK and the Maldives.

“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,” 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. All mortal remains were handled with utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the deceased,” he said.

“We are continuing to work with the UK authorities on addressing any concerns related to this issue,” Jaiswal added.

The Daily Mail reported that the Funeral plans of one of the victims were given up by relatives after they were told that their loved one was in a different coffin than their relatives, but it was a stranger who was brought back by the airline company.

In a different instance, the commingled remains of over one corpse killed in the accident were misidentified. The report said that they needed to be separated in order to allow the internment to proceed last weekend.

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This sloppiness was revealed when the coroner of the Inner West London region tried to confirm the identity of the bodies that were brought back by matching DNA with DNA samples submitted by the relatives.

According to the report, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is scheduled to visit Britain and reportedly to raise concerns with Modi there is a high-level inquiry into the issue in the UK and India.

The PM of India will be in the UK on July 23-24 when he meets Starmer and King Charles III. The milestone of the visit will be a bilateral free trade agreement expected to be signed formally.

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