UK Inquest Opens into Unidentified Remains from 2025 Air India Crash That Killed 260

A UK inquest into unidentified remains from the Air India crash opened this week, with families still awaiting confirmation of identities one year after the accident. The crash on 12 June 2025 in Ahmedabad killed 260 people, including 241 passengers and crew on board the aircraft and 19 people on the ground. Wreckage covered 37,000 square meters.

India's National Disaster Management Authority reported that 90 percent of the bodies were severely charred. Dr Deepak Venkatesh said extreme thermal damage eliminated fingerprints and facial features. He said authorities prioritized DNA testing over dental records, creating a bottleneck at the Gandhinagar laboratory.

Miten Patel stated that his mother's casket contained additional skeletal parts belonging to an unidentified man. Further testing confirmed the commingling of remains. The Patels' remains were returned to the UK more than a week after the crash.

Four days after the remains arrived, London police informed Miten Patel that a CT scan showed commingled remains. The Patel family waited another month before cremating the remains. Coroner Fiona Wilcox said palm prints and DNA samples had been sent to India, but no confirmation of identity had been received from Indian authorities.

She stated that contact had only recently been made with Raj's son. Amanda Donaghey received the remains of 70-year-old Vasuben Narendrasinh Raj instead of her son Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek. The Indian foreign ministry stated in July 2025 that identification had followed established protocols.

Lawyer James Healey-Pratt said no Indian authority had accepted responsibility for the identification errors. Miten Patel's parents Ashok and Shobhana Patel died in the crash. The NDMA issued new identification guidelines in January 2026 that used the Air India crash as a case study.