Air India crash top updates: Centre says Boeing 787 fleet being examined, 11 DNA samples match

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20 hours ago

Union Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu on Saturday stated that the data from the black box of the Air India plane that crashed and killed more than 270 persons on Thursday was being analysed.
In the first press conference after the crash, Naidu stated that the Union government will look into all possible theories of what could have caused the disaster. He added that an extended surveillance of all Boeing 787 flights operational in India would be conducted.
On Thursday, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, which was en route to London's Gatwick airport from Ahmedabad, crashed just 33 seconds after taking off.
This is being viewed as the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.
There were 242 people aboard the aircraft. One passenger survived with ' impact injuries '.
A total of 274 bodies had been sent for postmortem, according to The Times of India. This included 33 persons who were killed on the ground when the aircraft crashed into the hostel building of the BJ Medical College in Meghani Nagar area of Ahmedabad.
Here is more on this and other top updates:
In the aftermath of the crash, eight of the Boeing 787 aircraft have so far been inspected following the directive issued Friday by the aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation, said Naidu during the press conference.
Later in the day, Air India announced that it had completed one-time safety checks on nine out of 33 of its Boeing 787 aircraft. It added that the checks were still underway for the remaining 24 aircraft and warned that this could 'lead to higher turnaround time and potential delays on certain long-haul routes, especially those to airports with operating curfews'.
The Tata Group has announced that the families of the 33 persons who died on the ground will also receive a monetary compensation of Rs 1 crore. Beside the medical expenses for the injured will be fully covered, The Indian Express reported. An unidentified official told the newspaper that 'nothing has been decided' about providing jobs to the next of kin.
The DNA samples of 11 of the persons who died in the crash have matched, Dr Rajnesh Patel, the head of surgery at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, told The Hindu. One body has been handed over to the family. On Friday, a police officer had said that six bodies were handed over to the family after identification.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge visited the site of the crash on Saturday and also met those were injured and are being treated at hospitals. 'My deepest condolences and thoughts are with the families of the victims, crew, pilot and people on the ground who have lost their lives, including medical students,' Kharge said on social media.