Sonali Tiwary
The death toll from the recent Air India crash in Ahmedabad has risen to 270, according to Dr. Dhaval Gameti from BJ Medical College. The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff on Thursday, killing 241 of the 242 passengers on board, with only one survivor – a 40-year-old British man.
The crash site is a residential area near the Civil Hospital where the plane slammed into a building used as doctors’ accommodation, leading to additional deaths on the ground.
Families Face Painful Wait for Identification
Families of victims are expressing growing frustration and anger as they wait for the remains of their loved ones. Many have been camping at the civil hospital in Ahmedabad for days under intense summer heat, providing DNA samples for matching.
“Victims’ families need confirmation. You’ve taken our DNA and how many have been matched, how many bodies have you identified? Tell us,” said Rashid Hora, who lost three family members including his four-year-old niece, all British nationals from Gloucester.
Hora expressed concern about receiving decomposed bodies or possibly being given someone else’s remains due to the delays.
Rafiq Menon, waiting to collect the bodies of four British family members from London, pleaded with officials to provide information about his children. He said they had been waiting for over 72 hours and begged not to be tortured by the lack of information.
Dr. Rajnish Patel, a senior doctor at BJ Medical College, explained that only 11 victims’ DNA has been matched with family members so far. He noted that the DNA matching process must be done meticulously due to legal and medical implications, making it impossible to rush.
Passengers on the Flight
The flight was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian. Among the victims were Hardik Avaiya and Vibhooti Patel, a couple from Leicester who had gone to India to celebrate their engagement.
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At the Shree Hanuman Temple in Leicester, prayers have been held to remember the victims. Friends described Mr. Avaiya as a “model devotee and volunteer” who “didn’t like the limelight” and “just worked in the background to get things done.”
Echoes of the 2010 Mangalore Crash
This tragedy brings back memories of the 2010 Air India Express crash in Mangalore where 158 of 166 people died when a Boeing 737-800 overshot a tabletop runway. That disaster highlighted serious problems with identifying victims’ remains – issues that seem to be repeating now.
After the Mangalore crash, chaos ensued as families desperately tried to identify charred bodies. Officials reported that due to failures in disaster verification identification, 22 bodies remained unclaimed, with 11 bodies ultimately not claimed due to DNA mismatches.
A. Prabhakar Sharma, who served as in-charge chairman of Dakshina Kannada district disaster management authority during the 2010 crash, urged authorities to ensure proper Disaster Victim Identification before handing over charred bodies.
Investigation Underway
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is leading the inquiry into the cause of the crash, assisted by teams from the US and UK. A black box has been recovered from the crash site, which India’s civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said would “significantly aid the inquiry” into the disaster.
In response to the crash, the civil aviation ministry has also ordered “extended surveillance into the Boeing 787 series” of aircraft.
For now, as investigators work to determine what went wrong, families continue their painful wait, hoping for closure and the chance to say a final goodbye to their loved ones.
