India on Wednesday trashed a British media report which claimed that two United Kingdom-based families of Ahmedabad Plane Crash victims received wrong bodies of their loved ones.
Rejecting the British media report, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that all the mortal remains were handled with utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the victims, reported PTI.
“We have seen the report and have been working closely with the UK side from the moment these concerns and issues were brought to our attention,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, adding, “In the wake of the tragic crash, the concerned authorities had carried out identification of victims as per established protocols and technical requirements.”
Jaiswal was responding to media queries regarding a report which made the allegations related to the June 12 Ahmedabad Plane Crash in which 241 people on board, including 53 British nationals, were killed.
“All mortal remains were handled with utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the deceased. We are continuing to work with the UK authorities on addressing any concerns related to this issue,” he said.
The British newspaper, citing versions of two unnamed families, claimed that the repatriation of the British nationals killed in the crash has been “horrifically bungled”.
Bereaved families are suffering fresh heartache because the remains of their loved ones were wrongly identified before being flown home, it alleged.
Ahmedabad Plane Crash: ‘Unbaised’ AAIB carrying out thorough probe, says Union Civil Aviation Minister
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is “totally unbiased” and is carrying out a definitive and thorough rule-based probe to find out what exactly led to the Air India plane crash that killed 260 people last month, Union Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said in Rajya Sabha on Monday.
Ten days after the AAIB came out with its initial probe into the fatal crash, Naidu said the investigation process is being carried out as per international norms and assured the Upper House that the country has a very robust aviation safety mechanism.
“We want to stand by the truth. We want to find out what exactly happened and that is only going to be coming out once the final report (of AAIB) is placed. We have to respect the process of investigation and once that process has happened, then we can talk about what happened, how it happened and then corrective measures (can be taken),” Naidu said.
Amid speculations over the possible role of pilots in the accident, Naidu said the AAIB’s preliminary report talks about only what has happened based on the facts in the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.