Authorities identify all but one of 260 victims of Air India plane crash
AHMEDABAD, India, June 24 (Reuters) - Authorities in Gujarat state said on Tuesday they had identified all but one of 260 bodies recovered following an Air India plane crash earlier this month in the western city of Ahmedabad.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board, bound for London's Gatwick Airport, lost height seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad on June 12 and erupted in a fireball as it hit a medical college hostel.
There was one survivor among those on the plane, and the crash also killed 19 people on ground.
The death count was below the authorities' earlier estimate of 270 but officials remained cautious on the final toll.
"We have identified 259 victims. They include 240 passengers and 19 non-passengers. DNA test result of one passenger is still awaited," said Rakesh Joshi, superintendent of Ahmedabad civil hospital.
"The site of the crash is still being cleared. Unless we are certain that no additional victims are going to be found, we cannot declare the final death toll," Joshi added.
The remains of the 256 people have been handed over to their families, the local government said in a statement, adding that 253 victims were identified through DNA sample matching and the remaining six through facial identification.
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A flight from Gatwick to Amritsar, in north India, was also axed, and an Air India flight bound for Delhi from Hong Kong turned back after the pilot suspected a technical issue. Then, on Tuesday, the DGCA said it had found multiple instances of aircraft defects reappearing 'many times' at Mumbai and Delhi airports, two of the country's busiest, indicating what it said were inadequate checks on jetliners. The findings were part of a special audit being carried out to strengthen safety in the wake of a deadly Air India crash. The regulator did not name the airlines where the defects were found or detail the type of defects. The two airports in the world's third-largest aviation market serve major Indian airlines such as IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express, as well as many international carriers. The repeated instances of defects indicated 'ineffective monitoring and inadequate rectification action', the DGCA said. The government body also found other violations such as an aircraft maintenance engineer not taking prescribed safety precautions, not addressing defects in some places and work order not being followed in jet maintenance.
