Aviation safety analyst Amit Singh on what could have caused Air India crash
An Air India plane carrying 242 people has crashed in the western city of Ahmedabad, minutes after take-off. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was bound for London Gatwick. This marks the first time a Boeing 787 has crashed. Mr Amit Singh, founder of Safety Matters Foundation, shared more about what could have happened.
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CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims
AHMEDABAD, India: Grieving families were due to hold funerals in India on Sunday (Jun 14) for their relatives who were among at least 279 killed in one of the world's worst plane crashes in decades. Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing, delivering them in white coffins in the western city of Ahmedabad. "My heart is very heavy, how do we give the bodies to the families?" said Tushar Leuva, an NGO worker who has been helping with the recovery efforts. There was just one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the Air India jet when it crashed Thursday into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground. "How will they react when they open the gate? But we'll have to do it," Leuva told AFP at the mortuary on Saturday. One victim's relative, who did not want to be named, told AFP they had been instructed not to open the coffin when they received it. Witnesses reported seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it went down moments after takeoff, smashing into buildings used by medical staff. Mourning relatives have been providing DNA samples to be matched with passengers, with 31 identified as of Sunday morning. "This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only," Rajnish Patel, a doctor at Ahmedabad's civil hospital, said late Saturday.
Straits Times
3 hours ago
- Straits Times
Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims
Grieving families of those who died in the Air India crash on June 12 are due to hold funerals in India on June 15. PHOTO: REUTERS Grieving families were due to hold funerals in India on June 15 for their relatives who were among at least 279 killed in one of the world's worst plane crashes in decades. Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing, delivering them in white coffins in the western city of Ahmedabad. 'My heart is very heavy, how do we give the bodies to the families?' said Mr Tushar Leuva, an NGO worker who has been helping with the recovery efforts. There was just one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the Air India jet when it crashed Thursday into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground. 'How will they react when they open the gate? But we'll have to do it,' Mr Leuva told AFP at the mortuary on June 14. One victim's relative who did not want to be named told AFP they had been instructed not to open the coffin when they receive it. Witnesses reported seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it went down moments after takeoff, smashing into buildings used by medical staff. Mourning relatives have been providing DNA samples to be matched with passengers, with 31 identified as of the morning of June 15. 'This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only,' Dr Rajnish Patel, a doctor at Ahmedabad's civil hospital, said late on June 14. The majority of those injured on the ground have been discharged, he added, with one or two remaining in critical care. Girls orphaned by crash Indian authorities are yet to detail the cause of the disaster and have ordered inspections of Air India's Dreamliners. Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said on June 14 he hoped decoding the recovered black box, or flight data recorder, would 'give an in-depth insight' into what went wrong. Just one person miraculously escaped the wreckage, British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, whose brother was also on the flight. Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members. Among the passengers was a father of two young girls, Mr Arjun Patoliya, who had travelled to India to scatter his wife's ashes following her death weeks earlier. 'I really hope that those girls will be looked after by all of us,' said Ms Anjana Patel, the mayor of London's Harrow borough where some of the victims lived. 'We don't have any words to describe how the families and friends must be feeling,' she added. While communities were in mourning, one woman recounted how she survived only by arriving late at the airport. 'The airline staff had already closed the check-in,' said 28-year-old Bhoomi Chauhan. 'At that moment, I kept thinking that if only we had left a little earlier, we wouldn't have missed our flight,' she told the Press Trust of India news agency. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
AsiaOne
4 hours ago
- AsiaOne
'In shock': British Indians mourn crash victims at London vigil, World News
LONDON -Dozens of members of Britain's Indian community gathered at a Hindu temple in London on Saturday (June 14) for a vigil mourning the victims of this week's Air India crash, many of whom had personal connections to the temple. Leaders from the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Muslim, Parsi, Zoroastrian and other communities offered their prayers, as those in attendance, hands folded, recited chants. A representative of Britain's King Charles read out a message from him and offered Christian prayers. Rajrajeshwar Guruji, head of the Siddhashram Hindu temple in Harrow, likened the grief of those who lost family members in the crash of the London-bound flight to the wait for a loved one's return from an endless journey. "They're just waiting and waiting, now they are not going to come back again," he said in an interview. Guruji, who comes from the state of Gujarat where the plane crashed, said the temple had helped family members in Britain get information about their loved ones. "Some of the members ... I have spoken to them, and ... they don't have the words," he said. "They are in shock." Britain has one of the largest Indian communities outside India, with nearly 1.69 million people - or 3.1 per cent of the population - identifying as ethnically Indian. [[nid:719065]] "We believe that everyone who is born has to go one day. But I hope nobody goes the way these ... passengers, as well as the medical students, have gone," said Harrow Mayor Anjana Patel, who lost a family member. Only one of the 242 passengers and crew on board survived the crash, while others were killed when the plane struck a medical college's hostel. Patel told Reuters that the council was offering grief counselling. "We just cannot bear how people must be feeling," she said. Jyotsna Shukla, 66, said her son's childhood friend was on the plane with his wife and three children. "I feel very bad because he was so young," she said, before breaking down into tears. Among those killed was Vijay Rupani, a former chief minister of Gujarat, who had visited the temple.
