'He was 700 metres away from crash site': Filmmaker missing since Air India tragedy, kin fear he's among ground victims
NEW DELHI: The DNA samples of a filmmaker's family were submitted following his disappearance on Thursday, with his last mobile phone location detected approximately 700 metres from the devastating
Air India plane crash
site.
The aircraft plunged into a medical college campus in Meghaninagar shortly after departing from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 1:39pm on Thursday, resulting in 241 fatalities amongst passengers and crew, with an additional 29 deaths on the ground.
Mahesh Kalawadia from Naroda, also known as Mahesh Jirawala, a music album director, visited someone at Law Garden area that afternoon, according to his wife Hetal.
"My husband called me at 1.14pm to tell me his meeting is over and that he is on his way home. However, when he did not return, I called up on his phone but it was switched off. After police was intimated, the last location of his mobile phone showed he was 700 metres away from the crash site," she said.
"His phone got switched off around 1.40pm (a minute after the ill-fated flight took off). His scooter and mobile phone are missing.
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All this is unusual since he would never use that route (as per the last location) to come home. We have submitted DNA samples to check if he was one of those killed on the ground due to the crash," Hetal added.
Due to severe burns and damage to many bodies, authorities are conducting DNA tests to confirm the identities of the casualties in this catastrophic incident.
Three days following the
Air India
flight AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad, which has resulted in 270 casualties, hospital officials announced on Sunday that 47 victims have been identified through DNA matching.
Officials confirmed that 24 bodies have been released to their respective families.
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