Air India Crash: Families Battle a Year to Identify Victims

Fri Jun 12 2026 18:46:43 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

A year after Ahmedabad’s Air India tragedy, families face daunting forensic challenges in identifying remains and demanding transparency.

The Air India flight 171 crash in June 2023 left 260 dead amid chaotic wreckage and severe thermal damage. Families, notably Miten Patel, grapple with delayed identification of loved ones and the discovery of an unidentified male remains within their mother's casket. Inquest findings highlight commingling, bio‑identification bottlenecks, and the urgent need for better forensic protocols. The incident spurs calls for accountability from authorities and spurs revised guidelines to prevent future tragedies.

Air India Crash: Families Battle a Year to Identify Victims

On 12 June 2023 a South Delhi‑based Air India flight (AI171) plunged 32 seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people. It was the worst aviation disaster in India’s history. Yet for many families the grief runs deeper — the inability to separate and identify remains has trapped them in a year‑long battle.

Miten Patel, who flew from London to Ahmedabad carrying his parents’ dental records, explains that it took more than a week to return his parents’ remains to the UK. Suddenly, police asked him to meet without explaining why. A CT scan revealed the mother’s casket also contained an unidentified male, prompting a blood‑print and DNA search that remains unresolved.

In the aftermath, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) launched a forensic team, but the chaos of 37,000 square metres of wreckage and bodies rendered many remains charred and unrecognisable. “Commingling was inevitable,” said forensic expert Dr Deepak Venkatesh. The NDMA acknowledged that its earlier protocols favored DNA over dental records, creating a bottleneck in a laboratory that was suddenly flooded with difficult samples.

These technical challenges, combined with no official apology from Indian aviation authorities, have left families, like the Patels, feeling abandoned. Their lawyer, James Healey‑Pratt, insists that transparency is essential: “Families deserve it, not covert procedures.”

In August a UK coroner, Fiona Wilcox, opened an inquiry into the unidentified male, noting that “their identity remains outstanding.” She also highlighted the psychological toll of watching post‑crash footage, calling the discovery of mixed remains a “tragic side‑effect” of the disaster.

Meteorologists estimating temperatures of 45°C at the crash scene explain why bodies were hard to separate. The NDMA’s updated guidelines now stress the need for regional DNA labs and greater utilisation of dental identification. Yet the crisis has underlined that disaster management frameworks lack adequate systematic attention to victim identification.

Miten Patel’s story is one of perseverance, continuing a fight to honor his parents. He records hours of videos of family photos at 11 pm, hoping a day they meet “Beta” will bring closure. His arc underscores the need for rigorous forensic protocols that safeguard dignity, ensure accountability, and avert future tragedies.