The unknown man in my mother's coffin: A year after Air India crash, families still waiting for answers
Miten Patel remembers the day hospital staff in Ahmedabad drew two vials of his blood to help identify his parents. He had landed in the
Miten Patel remembers the day hospital staff in Ahmedabad drew two vials of his blood to help identify his parents. He had landed in the Indian city hours earlier with his brother, carrying dental records for Ashok and Shobhana Patel. "We had to fly Air India to get there, because there were no other flights," he said. Miten didn't know anyone in India. But he was grateful that his parents had taught him Gujarati, the local language in Ahmedabad. It gave him and his brother the means to navigate the chaotic aftermath of the tragedy that changed their world. "I didn't even know what the word repatriation meant." A year ago, on 12 June, his parents were flying home to London when their Air India flight crashed just 32 seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad.
They were among 260 people - 241 on the plane and 19 on the ground - who were killed in one of the worst aviation accidents in India's history. One passenger miraculously survived the crash. It took more than a week for the Patels' remains to be returned to the UK. Four days later, Miten received a call in the morning from police in London. They asked to meet him that evening, refusing to tell him the reason over the phone. A CT scan had revealed that his mother's casket also contained the remains of someone else. Miten was told there were additional "skeletal parts".
Police asked Miten not to tell anyone, not even his family, for weeks. He insisted on meeting the coroner. "I said to them, look, I would sincerely request that you separate my mother from whoever else," he said. Further testing showed that his mother's remains had been mixed with those of an unidentified man. The Patel family waited another month before they could cremate her remains, postponing Ashok's last rites so they could be done together. A UK inquest has been opened into the death of the man in Shobahana Patel's casket, who still hasn't been identified. In a hearing this week, UK Coroner Fiona Wilcox said that they had "sent palm prints and DNA to India in an attempt to identify this gentleman but to date we have had no confirmation as to his name".
She added that it was "obviously very unusual" to open inquests nearly a year after the death. "The identity of the unidentified male remains outstanding. I hope that identification will be forthcoming," Wilcox added.
The BriefWire