‘We don’t know what poor person is in that casket’

Mother of Air India crash victim shares body mix-up agony

- BRYONY GOOCH

The mother of an Air India crash victim has spoken out about the “heartbreaking” moment she received the wrong body to bury in a botched repatriation scheme.

Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, 39, had been on the plane from Ahmedabad with his husband, Jamie, 45, after celebrating their wedding anniversary in India, when the plane to London Gatwick crashed less than a minute after takeoff. Only one passenger survived when Air India flight 171 lost power and hit a building, killing 260 people.

Mr Greenlaw-Meek’s mother, Amanda Donaghey, told The Sunday Times “it was heartbreaking” to be sent the wrong remains. “We don’t know what poor person is in that casket. This is an appalling thing to have happened.”

“All the time, I feel like I’m just standing on the edge of a black hole thinking, ‘Has he been disposed of?’” Ms Donaghey told the newspaper. She had travelled all the way from the south of France to Ahmedabad on 17 June to find out what had happened to her son.