BREAKING: ⚖️ UK Lawyer Reveals Air India’s “Offensive, Unethical, and Unacceptable” Behavior Towards Victims’ Families.
For days, the airline has treated the grieving families with shocking disrespect 💔.
Now, the world demands clear answers — and they want them immediately 🚨.
The lawyer representing families whose loved ones died in the Air India flight 171 crash has said he is “angered and appalled” by the airline’s “ethically outrageous” behaviour towards bereaved relatives.
Air India said the claims, which they take “incredibly seriously”, are “unsubstantiated and inaccurate”.
Peter Neenan, an aviation lawyer and partner at UK law firm Stewarts, has represented families in a number of large airline disasters around the world, including the high-profile MH17 and MH370 crashes.
He 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 the airline’s behaviour.
Neenan said that relatives arriving to identify their loved ones’ remains in the days after the crash on 12 June were put in a “small, crowded 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 have told him that Air India officials went round to their homes and asked why they had not yet completed the forms.
Neenan claimed families were falsely told they would not receive any payments unless they completed the forms, even though airlines are required under international law to make immediate advance payments to families entitled to compensation. Families are not required to do anything more than provide proof of identity and sign a receipt.
One relative, whose mother was killed in the crash, said: “The conditions where they asked us to complete the questionnaire were unacceptable, in a crowded hot corridor with unsuitable chairs and desks. There was no privacy whatsoever.
“They asked us for information about dependency but there was no specifics about what they meant by that, whether financial or otherwise. I felt pressure at the time under extremely distressing circumstances following such a catastrophic loss.
“Air India should have done this in a more professional and compassionate manner and asked all families to seek legal advice before proceeding. However, it was implied that if we did not complete the questionnaire and submit documents then no compensation would be paid.”
Air India has said they take “such accusations incredibly seriously” because the “support and welfare of the families impacted by this tragic incident is our number one priority”.
A spokesperson said the airline “sought to make the questionnaire as simple as possible to ensure compensation goes to the right person as swiftly and smoothly as possible”.
“We are doing everything we possibly can to ensure that compensation is provided as quickly and smoothly as possible to families at what is an impossibly difficult time for them,” they added.
“Understandably, there are some formal processes that must be followed but we are giving families all the time and flexibility they need and we want to support however we can.”
The spokesperson said Air India had been making “considerable efforts to process payment of interim compensation as soon as possible, in order to meet the immediate financial needs of affected family members, with the first payments having been made within days of the accident”.
