Amanda Donaghey provided DNA to officials in Ahmedabad but wrong remains were flown to the UK
The mother of one of the British victims of the Air India crash says her family is “heartbroken” after the wrong remains were sent home in his casket.
Air India’s London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college hostel seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing 241 people onboard.
Continue reading...Victims misidentified and ‘commingled’ parts of more than one person placed in same casket, says lawyer
British families grieving after the Air India disaster have discovered that the remains of their loved ones have been wrongly identified and repatriated, according to an aviation lawyer representing them.
Relatives of one victim had to abandon funeral plans after being informed that their coffin contained the body of an unknown passenger.
Continue reading...US report says investigators looking at actions of plane’s captain before plane crash that killed 260 people
Air India has said it found “no issues” with the fuel switches on its other Boeing planes after the fatal crash that killed 260 people last month, as a US report suggested investigators have turned their attention to the actions of the plane’s captain.
A preliminary report into the incident, released last week, found that the switches that controlled fuel going into the engines had been turned off “one after another” just after the plane took off from Ahmedabad airport.
Continue reading...Air India cautions investigation into Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash is in early stages as speculation about cause grows
India’s aviation regulator has ordered the country’s airlines to examine fuel switches on Boeing aircraft, after a preliminary report on the Air India flight 171 crash in June showed the fuel supply had been cut seconds after takeoff.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it had issued the order after several domestic and international airlines began making their own inspections of the locking mechanisms attached to the switches.
Continue reading...Relatives call for ‘honesty, transparency and an unwavering commitment to uncovering the full truth’
Families of the Air India crash victims have said they are hoping for more answers from investigators after a report found the plane’s fuel switches were cut off, deepening the mystery of what happened.
The preliminary report from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, published on Friday, said both of the plane’s fuel switches moved to the cut-off position immediately after takeoff, stopping fuel supply to the engines.
Continue reading...Early investigation into accident in Ahmedabad in June also contains details of pilots discussing the switches
Fuel to both engines of the Air India plane that crashed and killed 260 people last month appears to have been cut off seconds after the flight took off, a preliminary report has found.
Air India flight AI171, bound for London, crashed into a densely populated residential area in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground. It was India’s deadliest air crash in almost three decades.
Continue reading...Industry professionals gather at civil and military aircraft event further overshadowed by war between Israel and Iran
Every second summer more than 100,000 aviation industry professionals gather in Paris for an airshow – a flying display crossed with a vast conference. The mood at the latest gathering this week was more subdued than usual, after the deadly crash a week ago of a London-bound Air India flight in Ahmedabad.
Investigators have recovered the black box from the plane to try to work out the cause of the disaster. The aircraft maker Boeing, and GE Aerospace, which made the 787 Dreamliner’s engines, both cancelled many of their media-facing events out of respect for the families of the 241 passengers and crew who died, as well as at least 30 more people on the ground who were killed.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: With just one survivor emerging from the wreckage, investigators work to uncover the cause
Good morning. An Air India plane bound for London Gatwick took off from Ahmedabad, India, at 1.38pm local time last Thursday. On board were 242 people. Within moments of takeoff, the airliner crashed, sending up a fireball of exploding jet fuel.
Initial reports suggested all passengers and crew had perished. Then, miraculously, there was one survivor – a British man, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who while badly injured was able to walk out of the wreckage by himself. Ramesh, who was returning to his family in London, told the Hindustan Times: “I don’t know how I survived. I saw people dying in front of my eyes – the air hostesses, and two people I saw near me … I walked out of the rubble.”
Middle East | Israel and Iran broadened their strikes against each other in an escalating war that has killed and injured hundreds of people. Donald Trump called for an end to the conflict and warned Tehran against striking US targets in the region.
UK news | The government’s welfare plans have to be pushed through, Keir Starmer has said, indicating that there will be no further concessions over cuts to disability benefits.
UK news | Thousands of university students in the UK have been caught misusing ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools in recent years, while traditional forms of plagiarism show a marked decline.
UK news | China and Russia are stepping up sabotage operations targeting undersea cables and the UK is unprepared to meet the mounting threat, according to new analysis.
Greenland | Emmanuel Macron has criticised Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland as he became the first foreign head of state to visit the vast, mineral-rich Arctic territory since the US president began making explicit threats to annex it.
Continue reading...Gujarati communities in the capital gather to commemorate more than 270 victims who died in Ahmedabad air crash
As the late afternoon sun streamed into a small square behind the Indian High Commission in London on Sunday, a crowd of 200 people gathered for a vigil – one of several held around the UK this weekend to remember those who died in the Air India disaster.
Candles were placed beneath a bust of Jawaharlal Nehru and attenders listened to inter-faith leaders and members from the Gujarati community who had come to reflect on a shocking week of loss.
Continue reading...At community centre in north-west London, dozens share names of flight AI171 victims they knew, from relatives to dignitaries
In Harrow, north-west London, home to a large community of British Gujaratis, there was a sense of shock and profound sadness as people gathered at a community centre to mourn those who had been killed in the Air India flight.
Everyone’s phones had been buzzing all day on Thursday, said Aneka Shah-Levy, a local Labour councillor, as friends and family members across the world anxiously checked in on each other, and shared rumours and snippets of what information they knew.
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