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24th July 2025
10:05am BST
The funeral plans of at least one family affected by the Air India plane crash have been put in disarray after they discovered the remains of their loved ones had been misidentified and mixed up.
On June 12th 2025, Air India Flight One — which had been scheduled to travel between Ahmedabad Airport in India and London Gatwick — crashed just seconds after takeoff, leading to the loss of 260 lives.
Only one passenger survived, while a further 19 people were killed and 67 people were seriously injured on the ground.
Within the number of those killed were 52 British nationals.
Families affected by the disaster have now been struck by a shocking setback.
News has emerged that the repatriated remains of some of those killed have, in at least two cases, been mixed up as a result of the bodies being misidentified by Indian authorities.
As first reported by The Mail, the relatives of one victim of the crash had to immediately postpone their funeral ceremony after being informed that their coffin contained the body of an unknown passenger rather than their family member.
Another shocking case saw the 'commingled' remains of multiple people accidentally placed in the same casket.
They were separated ahead of last weekend’s internment.
The shocking findings came to light after West London based coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox attempted to ensure validity of the repatriated Britons' identities by matching their DNA with samples provided by the families.
With fears that more families may have been affected, the government have now launched a full-scale enquiry into the issue.
The news comes on the very same week that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the UK to officially sign a new trade agreement between the two countries.
Keir Starmer is expected to ask Modi more about the situation.
Dr Fiona Wilcox has not yet commented on the issue, after telling the Mail she felt it would be inappropriate for her to weigh in at this stage.
A lawyer representing the families said: “The families deserve urgent answers and assurances about the whereabouts of their loved ones.”
“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. 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.”
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