Air India crash: 32 bodies identified, 14 handed over to kin

This includes 11 passengers identified on Saturday. The hospital authorities had returned 8 bodies to their kin, which did not require DNA testing

New Delhi: The bodies of 32 passengers who were killed in the June 12 Air India plane crash, with 242 people on board, have been identified, and their families have been contacted, additional medical superintendent of BJ Medical College, Rajnish Patel, said on Sunday.

The hospital authorities have got coffins packed in trucks to return the bodies identified so far. (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

“Of the total 32 bodies matched through DNA sampling, 14 families have already come forward and taken the bodies back home. They were from different places of Rajasthan and Gujarat. This includes the 11 passengers who were identified yesterday. Our teams have contacted the families to come and collect the bodies. Arrangements have been made for each family for their travel,” he told HT.

Apart from the 32 bodies, the hospital authorities had returned 8 bodies to their kin, which did not require DNA testing for identification.

Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian on board the flight bound for London’s Gatwick Airport, as well as 12 crew members, making 242 onboard. Just one passenger miraculously survived the giant fireball, but several medical students are suspected to be among those who died when the Air India 787-8 Dreamliner lost altitude within 33 seconds of takeoff and hit two buildings of the BJ Medical College hostel complex.

“Currently there are 13 injured people being treated at the hospital,” Patel said.

BJ Medical College dean Minakshi Parekh on Saturday evening said that four families — three from the UK and one from India — are yet to come to give their blood samples. “There are three families from the UK and one from India who will be reaching Ahmedabad soon. We are in touch with the forensic science laboratory. They are working round-the-clock to match the samples. We hope to release the report of 10–20 samples every day. The bodies of the passengers are being handled in a dignified way. The government has provided them accommodation and vehicles so that they can come to take the bodies at their convenience,” the dean said on Saturday night.

Explaining the process, Parekh said that the tissue from bones and teeth of charred bodies was taken up for DNA profiling. “Taking samples in case of a charred body is possible but it takes time. In case of immediate relatives, the results are delivered immediately. For distant relatives, it may take time. But all bodies will be identified and handed to the families for a dignified funeral,” he added.

Meanwhile, the hospital authorities have got coffins packed in trucks to return the bodies identified so far, and a large hall at the BJ Medical College of the Civil Hospital, which doubled up as a classroom and auditorium, was turned into a DNA sample collection centre on Thursday.

With relatives thronging the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital’s mortuary after hearing reports of hospital authorities successfully matching the DNA reports, the district administration installed tents outside the mortuary.