More than 200 Air India crash victims identified
Distraught relatives have been providing DNA samples to help identify their loved ones lost in the June 12 tragedy. PHOTO: AFP
AHMEDABAD, India - More than 200 victims of the Air India jet crash have been identified through DNA testing, Indian authorities said on June 18, inching towards ending an agonising wait for relatives.
There was one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the London-bound plane on June 12 when it slammed into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground.
Distraught relatives have been providing DNA samples to help identify their loved ones, in a painstakingly slow process.
'As of 2pm, 202 DNA (samples) have been matched,' Mr Harsh Sanghavi, home minister of Ahmedabad's Gujarat state, wrote on X.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it crashed moments after takeoff, with witnesses reporting seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains.
Indian authorities are yet to announce the cause of the crash and investigators from Britain and the United States have joined the probe.
Investigators are aiming to retrieve vital information from both black boxes recovered from the site – the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.
India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau upgraded a laboratory this year where black boxes can be analysed.
Following the crash, the civil aviation regulator ordered inspections of Air India's Dreamliners.
Initial checks on the fleet 'did not reveal any major safety concerns', the regulator said late on June 17.
'The aircraft and associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards,' it said. AFP
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