Remains of Air India crash victims handed over to relatives

The Associated Press

· Posted: Jun 15, 2025 12:31 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

Authorities person started handing implicit remains of the victims of 1 of India's worst aviation disasters, days aft the Air India formation crashed and killed astatine slightest 270 people, officials said Sunday.

The London-bound Boeing 787 struck a aesculapian assemblage hostel successful a residential country of the northwestern metropolis of Ahmedabad minutes aft takeoff Thursday, sidesplitting 241 radical connected committee and astatine slightest 29 connected the ground. One rider survived.

Hundreds of relatives of the clang victims provided DNA samples astatine the hospital. Most of the bodies were charred oregon mutilated, making them unrecognizable.

Rajneesh Patel, an authoritative astatine Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital, said authorities person truthful acold identified 32 victims done DNA mapping and their families were informed. The remains of 14 victims were handed implicit to relatives, helium said.

The victims' families waited extracurricular the infirmary mortuary arsenic authorities worked to implicit formalities and transportation the bodies successful coffins into ambulances. Most of them person expressed vexation astatine a dilatory gait of the recognition process. Authorities accidental it usually takes up to 72 hours to implicit DNA matching and they are expediting the process.

Among the passengers, determination were 169 Indians, 53 Britons, 7 Portuguese and 1 Canadian.

Qasim Rashid Ahmed, a British nationalist of Indian root whose foundation provided nutrient and accommodation to the victims' relatives, said astir of the British victims had relatives successful Gujarat authorities and had fixed their DNA samples.

Alongside the ceremonial investigation, the Indian authorities has acceptable up a high-level committee to analyse the causes starring to the crash. The committee volition absorption connected formulating procedures to forestall and grip craft emergencies successful the future, India's Ministry of Civil Aviation said successful a connection Saturday.

Authorities person besides begun inspecting Air India's full fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday successful New Delhi astatine his archetypal quality briefing since Thursday's crash.

Eight of the 34 Dreamliners successful India person already undergone inspection, Kinjarapu said, adding that the remaining craft volition beryllium examined with "immediate urgency."

Investigators connected Friday recovered the plane's integer formation information recorder, oregon the achromatic box, from a rooftop adjacent the clang site.

WATCH | Raw video shows Air India formation crashing moments aft takeoff: 

The instrumentality is expected to uncover accusation astir the motor and power settings, portion the dependable recorder volition supply cockpit conversations, said Paul Fromme, a mechanical technologist with the U.K.-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The level that crashed was 12 years old. There are presently astir 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner craft worldwide and this was the archetypal deadly clang successful 16 years of operation, according to experts.

Boeing planes person been plagued by information issues on different types of aircraft.