Victims’ families receive remains from Air India plane crash authorities

In Ahmedabad, India, authorities have initiated the process of returning the remains of individuals affected by one of the country’s most devastating air tragedies. Following DNA testing, they have managed to identify some of the victims. The incident involved an Air India flight crashing in Gujarat state, claiming the lives of a minimum of 270 individuals. This was disclosed by officials on Sunday.

The tragic event occurred when a Boeing 787 en route to London collided with a medical college hostel in a residential section of the city of Ahmedabad in the northwest. The crash happened shortly after the aircraft took off on Thursday, resulting in the deaths of 241 passengers on board and at least 29 individuals on the ground. Remarkably, one passenger survived the ordeal.

Family members of the crash victims cooperated by providing DNA samples at the medical facility to aid in the identification process. A significant portion of the deceased individuals suffered from severe burns or mutilation, rendering their bodies unidentifiable.

Rajneesh Patel, an official at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, said authorities have so far identified 32 victims through DNA mapping and their families were informed. He said the remains of 14 victims were handed over to relatives.

The victims’ families waited outside the hospital mortuary as authorities worked to complete formalities and transfer the bodies in coffins into ambulances. Most of them have expressed frustration at a slow pace of the identification process. Authorities say it normally takes up to 72 hours to complete DNA matching and they are expediting the process.

Alongside the formal investigation, the Indian government has set up a high-level committee to examine the causes leading to the crash. The committee will focus on formulating procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement Saturday.

Authorities have also begun inspecting Air India’s entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday in New Delhi at his first news briefing since Thursday’s crash.

Eight of the 34 Dreamliners in India have already undergone inspection, Kinjarapu said, adding that the remaining aircraft will be examined with “immediate urgency.”

Investigators on Friday recovered the plane’s digital flight data recorder, or the black box, from a rooftop near the crash site.

The device is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings, while the voice recorder will provide cockpit conversations, said Paul Fromme, a mechanical engineer with the U.K.-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The plane that crashed was 12 years old. Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft. There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts.

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Hussain reported from Srinagar, India.