Air India crash families' year-long battle to identify remains of victims

Air India crash families' year-long battle to identify remains of victims24 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleAzadeh Moshiri,South Asia Correspondent, AhmedabadandCharlotte Scarr,AhmedabadFamily handoutAshok and Shobhana Patel were among those who died in the plane crash a year agoMiten 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 uniden...