Air India's treatment of bereaved families 'ethically outrageous', says aviation lawyer

The lawyer representing families whose loved ones died in the Air India Flight 171 crash in June says he is "angered and appalled" by the airline's "ethically outrageous" behaviour towards the relatives.

- Amelia Hill

Air India said it took the claims "incredibly seriously", but that they were "unsubstantiated and inaccurate".

Peter Neenan, an aviation lawyer and partner at UK law firm Stewarts, has represented families in many of the biggest airline disasters around the world, including the high-profile incidents involving two Malaysia Airlines flights: MH17, shot down over Ukraine in July 2014, and MH370, which had vanished over the Indian Ocean four months earlier.

Neenan claimed the airline's treatment of grief-stricken families could save it at least £100m by under-compensating families. "This is the real horror of what they're potentially looking to do," he said, calling for an investigation into its behaviour.

Neenan said that relatives arriving to identify their loved ones' remains in the days after the crash on 12 June had been put in a crowded, dark room in the intense heat with other bereaved families, and told to fill out documentation and a complicated questionnaire asking for important financial information.

The families were not given any warning, legal advice or a copy of the documents, he said. Some families told him Air India officials had gone to their homes and asked why they had not yet completed the forms.