Air India crash death toll hits 270, families wait for bodies

AHMEDABAD: The death toll in the deadly Air India plane crash rose to 270 on Saturday, with families increasingly getting upset due to delays in handing over bodies which were badly charred in the tragedy in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

The Boeing BA.N 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board bound for Britain’s Gatwick Airport began losing height seconds after take-off on Thursday and erupted in a fireball as it hit buildings below, in what has been the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.

At least 270 bodies have been recovered from the site of the plane crash, Dhaval Gameti, president of the Junior Doctors Association at B.J. Medical College, told reporters.

Only one of the 242 passengers and crew onboard survived while others were killed as the plane struck the medical college’s hostel as it came down.

The crisis has cast a shadow on Air India, which has for years struggled to rebuild its reputation and revamp its fleet after the Tata Group took over the airline from the Indian government in 2022. Tata’s chairman said on Friday the group wants to understand what happened, but “we don’t know right now.”

Air India and the Indian government were looking at several aspects of the crash including issues linked to its engine thrust, flaps, and why the landing gear remained open as the plane took off and then came down, Reuters has reported.

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Dozens of anxious family members have been waiting outside an Ahmedabad hospital to collect bodies of loved ones killed in the crash, as doctors were working overtime to gather dental samples from the deceased to run identification checks and DNA profiling.

Rafiq Abdul Hafiz Memon, who lost four relatives in the incident, said he was not getting any answers from authorities and was “very hassled”.

“We have lost our children .. we are not understanding anything. Please help us get information about our children. Tell us when they are going to release their bodies,” Memon said.

Another father was upset about not able to get the body of his son, Harshad Patel, saying he was told by authorities it will take 72 hours for DNA profiling. “The authorities are trying to help but our patience is running out,” he said.

Most bodies in the crash were badly charred and authorities are using dental samples to run identification checks.

Jaishankar Pillai, a forensic dentist, told reporters on Friday they had the dental records of 135 charred victims, which can then be matched through reference to victims’ prior dental charts, radiographs or other records.

Also read: Black box found at site of Air India crash that killed 265