a day ago
Dreamliner disaster: A long night of wait at the hospital for devastated families
Ahmedabad — The examination hall of the BJ medical college, behind the mortuary of Ahmedabad's civil hospital, was turned into a make-shift blood collection centre for DNA identification of the victims of Air India flight crash. Inside the heavily guarded mortuary are the bodies of those who died in the crash on Thursday afternoon.
Throughout Thursday night and until early Friday, families from states as far as Manipur, and nearby Maharashtra came in to give their blood samples.
Until 5 am on Friday, hospital officials said at least 200 people had given their samples. 'We are expecting families of foreign nationals to come tomorrow,' Kuldipsinh P Barot, from the medical college's forensic department, said.
Inside the examination hall, was Imtiyaz Ali(42), who had come from Mumbai after hearing of the flight crash. On the Air India 171 flight to Gatwick, carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members from Ahmedabad, there was his brother Javed, Javed's wife Mariyam and their two children — Amani and Zayn. Javed worked as a manager at a hotel in London.
His brother, Imtiyaz spoke to HT after giving his blood sample. 'Javed had come on June 6 last for our mother's treatment and to celebrate EiD. The whole family was there on the ill fated plane. I haven't told my mother about it. We have not even seen the bodies. The doctors here told me to give my blood samples,' Imtiyaz said adding that he hoped for his brother to be alive.
'I am sending WhatsApp messages to his phone number. For some reason the messages are getting delivered. I am still getting two ticks to every message sent on his WhatsApp. So I know the chances are low but I wish he is and his family are alive,' Javed said.
Police officers believe the phone may be among the hundreds of unclaimed bags that fell in the ground floor of the building near the airport wall when the plans crashed.
Imtiyaz said his sister and her family were also returning to London on Thursday but had booked a different flight. 'It is destiny that Javed and his family were in that plane. He booked a plane via Ahmedabad. My sister booked a direct one. I have no idea what prompted Javed to book a flight via Ahmedabad. Somehow when I dropped him to the Mumbai airport last night, I did not ask him why he was going via Ahmedabad. Maybe it was the difference in the fares.'
At the entrance of the hall, there are messages on the wall informing relatives that the blood sample report will be available only after 72 hours.
Outside the hall, Pune resident Sameer Sheikh was unable to understand why he must wait for 72 hours. Irfan's younger son, Irfan Sameer Sheikh was a crew member. Sheikh has come with his family from Pune.
'The Air India executives went inside the mortuary and confirmed to me that my son's body is not charred. We showed our son's identity card to the Air India executives who confirmed that the body is not charred and they could recognise him. We cannot wait for 3 days. They should hand over the bodies of those who have been identified,' Sheikh said.
Irfan, who had joined Air India two years ago, had last spoken to his mother before boarding the flight. 'He was to return day after tomorrow,'Sheikh said.
At the blood collection examination hall, the help desk manned by hospital staff, medical students and local volunteers were busy through the night. For the medical students there, the task is even more traumatic because the dead include their juniors who lived in the hostel's mess next to the airport.
The building next to the Ahmedabad airport boundary wall where the aircraft crashed, its rear parts stuck to the building, was the BJ medical college's boys hostel. The hostel is a 10-minute drive from the college and the examination hall where blood samples are being taken.
'Some families coming here are relatives of juniors whom we have seen at the college here. It is painful. Equally painful is having to take the blood sample of a 11 year old who has lost both his parents in the crash or an elderly man who has lost his son and daughter-in-law,' one PG student at the DNA blood sample collected desk said.
More than 15 hours after the crash, families continued to walk in to give their samples at the medical college's examination hall. There is heavy security outside the mortuary. Volunteers and police teams are guiding every family to the DNA collection centre.
'Those who died in today's accident aren't just the passengers or those who were trapped the BJ Medical College's mess when the flight crashed. There were passers-by and shop keepers near the mess who too have died in the fire after the crash. Even at 5 am we are getting people coming from different parts of the state. The flames from the fuel of the plane engulfed the neighbourhood. The number of people who have died is more than what is being reported,' she said.
