Woman’s remains repatriated to UK after wrongly identified as another Air India crash victim, inquest hears
The remains of a woman killed in the 2025 Air India crash were incorrectly identified and returned to the UK under the name of another victim, an inquest has heard.
The remains of 70-year-old Vasuben Narendrasinh Raj were sent to the UK under another name but were correctly identified after DNA testing.
He was among the 241 passengers who died after a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner en route to London crashed in the western Indian state of Gujarat on June 12, 2025. The plane crashed into a medical school building shortly after takeoff, killing 19 more people on the ground. Only one passenger, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British citizen of Indian origin, survived the crash.
An investigation has been launched for two victims, including a 70-year-old woman and a second person whose identity has not yet been determined.
On Tuesday, senior coroner professor Fiona Wilcox told Inner West London Coroner’s Court it was “clearly very unusual” to launch an inquest almost a year after the death.
He told an online hearing that Raj’s remains were sent to the UK under another person’s name, but when the remains were tested it was confirmed they did not belong to that person.
Westminster Public Mortuary then sent the remains for DNA testing and sent the results to Indian authorities, who confirmed it was Raj’s.
“Extensive investigations are ongoing behind the scenes and we have only recently been able to contact Ms Raj’s son,” he said.
In a separate case heard by the inquest, the remains of an unidentified male victim were mixed with the remains of another accident victim and later separated by forensic examination.
He said extensive examinations were carried out on these remains and the victim was separated from the remains of another person.
“We have sent palm prints and DNA to India in an attempt to identify this gentleman, but to date we have not received any confirmation of his name or any other records that the court can and should find,” he said.
“The identity of the unidentified man is still known. I hope his identification will be made soon,” he added.
Full investigations will be conducted once the results of the Indian investigation are available.
Detective Inspector Mike Buck, who attended the hearing, said: “We have been working with the British High Commission in India for some time to make these identifications.”
Full investigations will be conducted once the Indian investigation is concluded.
