Miten Patel recounts traveling to Ahmedabad to identify his parents after an Air India crash. A year later, a UK inquest continues after his mother’s casket was found to contain another victim’s remains.
Miten Patel still remembers the day hospital staff in Ahmedabad drew two vials of his blood to help identify his parents after the crash. He and his brother had flown to the Indian city with dental records for Ashok and Shobhana Patel, traveling on a rare available Air India flight and relying on the Gujarati their parents had taught them to navigate the chaotic aftermath.
On 12 June last year, the Patels were among 260 people killed when an Air India flight crashed 32 seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad one of the deadliest aviation accidents in India’s history. Only one passenger survived. It took more than a week for the Patels’ remains to be repatriated to the UK. Then, four days after the return, police contacted Miten and asked to meet him in person. He later learned a CT scan showed his mother’s casket contained additional “skeletal parts.” Further testing revealed her remains had been mixed with those of an unidentified man.
Miten said he insisted on meeting the coroner and asked that his mother be separated from the other victim. The family postponed Ashok Patel’s last rites so that his wife Shobhana could be cremated alongside him, once her remains were properly identified. A UK inquest has since opened into the death of the unidentified man found in Shobhana Patel’s casket. UK Coroner Fiona Wilcox told a recent hearing that palm prints and DNA samples were sent to India in an effort to identify him, but investigators have yet to confirm his identity. Wilcox described it as “obviously very unusual” to open inquests nearly a year after the crash.
The Patels’ ordeal highlights the lasting trauma families face after major air disasters, from the logistics of repatriation to anguished waits for clear answers about the fate of loved ones. Authorities in both countries continue to exchange forensic evidence as the investigation and inquest proceed.
