Amanda Donaghey, the mother of British victim Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek who died in the Air India crash, says her family is 'heartbroken' after the wrong remains were sent home in his casket. Donaghey provided a DNA sample in Ahmedabad to help identify her son, but later learned that DNA tests in the UK showed his remains were not in the coffin.
The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college hostel shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing 241 people, including 52 British nationals. Greenlaw-Meek, 39, and his husband Jamie, 45, were returning from celebrating their wedding anniversary.
Donaghey travelled to India and a DNA match was made on 20 June. She returned to the UK with the coffin, but on 5 July police informed her of the error. 'I had my doubts but to be told that was heartbreaking. This is an appalling thing to have happened,' she told the Sunday Times.
Lawyers representing British victims say at least two of the 12 caskets returned to the UK contained misidentified remains. James Healy-Pratt of Keystone Law stated that if that sample is extrapolated, it could mean 40 mishandled remains out of 240. He called on the Foreign Office and Prime Minister Keir Starmer to intervene, saying Indian authorities have 'not been transparent or helpful.'
Another British victim, Shobhana Patel, 71, is said to have had a coffin containing the remains of several people. Her son Miten Patel stressed the importance of knowing with certainty that the remains are his mother's for religious reasons. A preliminary report found the plane's fuel switches had been moved to cut-off, deepening the mystery and leaving families distressed.
