A day after the Air India crash, officials are facing significant challenges in determining the final number of casualties, as identifying the bodies and locating the missing individuals has proven difficult. While police and state health department teams are using DNA matching to confirm the identities of the 241 deceased passengers, only eight bodies of those who died on the ground were returned to their families on Friday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 4) Kanan Desai reported that around 265 bodies, including those of four MBBS students and a doctor’s wife at the crash site, were found. However, it remains unclear how many additional individuals may have perished on the ground, with at least 16 others still unaccounted for. A senior government official emphasized the challenge of confirming identities, noting, “It will be very difficult to say how many deaths occurred until we confirm the identity because it is possible that parts of one body are being assumed as the remains of two persons.”
As of late Friday, autopsies were ongoing. It has been easier to identify victims who died on the ground, as they sustained fewer burns than those who were on board the aircraft, according to a government official. Dr. Minakshi Parikh, the Dean of BJ Medical College, mentioned that they had no information on the two third-year medical students and three family members of a doctor who are missing. An official indicated that there is currently no comprehensive record of the missing.
Authorities have gathered 219 DNA samples from relatives of the victims to match with the identified bodies. Notably, at least 21 of these samples belong to foreign nationals. The Ahmedabad Police have registered an accidental death case at the Meghaninagar police station, which falls under the crash’s jurisdiction. To investigate the identities of the deceased, 40 police teams are working to create inquest reports after conducting autopsies.
In a statement released by the Gujarat government, it was noted that the bodies of eight individuals from local residential areas, who lost their lives in the incident, were identified and handed over to their families. The victims hailed from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bhavnagar in Gujarat, and other districts. An official reported that two bodies were sent out by early Friday morning, while the remaining were transported by evening.
According to state government information, about 50 injured individuals were admitted to a civil hospital in Ahmedabad. Among them, 16 are being treated as outpatients, while 31 remain as inpatients, with at least 12 expected to be discharged soon.
Original Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/ahmedabad-plane-crash-at-least-249-dead-officials-struggle-to-arrive-at-a-final-figure-10065617/
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Publish Date: 2025-06-14 01:17:00
