Officials from Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and US National Transportation Safety Board at the Ahmedabad flight crash spot as part of the probe, on Monday. .
Ahmedabad crash LIVE: Govt-constituted panel meets; wait for families continues
Four days on, grieving families still wait for kin's mortal remains
A high-level multi-disciplinary committee, set up by the government to look into the Ahmedabad plane crash, on Monday (June 16, 2025) deliberated on various possible theories that could have led to the country's worst air disaster in decades.
The panel, chaired by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, listened to the opinions of various stakeholders about the possible causes of the aircrash and deliberated on steps to be taken to check future occurrences of any such accident, sources said.
In the first meeting of the panel here, the sources said, the focus of the participants was to analyse the possible causes of the aircrash and how to go about in "formulating Standard Operating Procedures for preventing such occurrences in the future".
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 persons on board crashed into a medical college complex in Ahmedabad moments after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 1.39 pm on June 12.
While 241 persons on board the London-bound aircraft died, one passenger miraculously survived. Besides, 29 persons, including five MBBS students, are reported to have died in the disaster on the ground.
Agonising wait for families
Amid the trauma of losing their loved ones, it is a long wait for the families of several victims of the Air India plane crash as they continue to camp here for four days in the hope of getting the mortal remains of their kin.
They were among the first ones to submit their samples for DNA tests on June 12, the day the horrific incident occurred, so that they could be matched with the deceased. They were asked to wait for 72 hours, but the deadline got over on Sunday and the wait seems endless.
Till Monday afternoon, the Ahmedabad civil hospital authorities said 99 victims have been identified through DNA testing and 64 bodies handed over to the victims.
Health authorities here have asked the distraught family members not to panic, while experts said the DNA samples matching could take time, given the large number of fatalities in the crash.
What kin say
"We visited the DNA collection centre yesterday but were told that our samples were yet to be matched," Pooja Sukhadare, a relative of crew member Roshni Songhare, said.
Sukhadare has been here since the tragedy with the father and brother of Songhare, whose family resides at Dombivli in Maharashtra's Thane district.
Addressing concerns of the grief-stricken families, civil superintendent Dr Rakesh Joshi appealed to them not to panic over the time consuming process of matching the DNA samples of relatives with the remains of the deceased.
What experts say
Attempts to contact Forensic Science Laboratory Director H P Sanghvi did not yield any success.
Rakesh Mishra, former director of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, told PTI that DNA matching is not a tedious task but in the case of this accident the number of deceased is large.
Also, it depends on the condition of the tissue. If the body is very charred, they have to look for a bone, extract tissue which is intact or in a better condition.
"More damaged and degraded samples will fetch less data. In this case, some may have been severely damaged, burnt and those will be challenging, but it is doable. Plus, there will be samples of relatives whose DNA has to be isolated," said Mishra, who is now director of the Tata Institute of Genetics and Society in Bengaluru.
He said that in an accident of this magnitude, it can take time due to the condition of the bodies.
Since people sit very closely next to each other in the economy class of an aircraft, in such cases there is a possibility that tissues melt and get mixed up due to extreme heat. In some cases bodies pile up over each other during the rescue work, he said.
Follow The Federal’s stories on the crash here
Ahmedabad crash victim’s sister demands accountability, transparency
Air India crash puts spotlight back on poor infrastructure at airports
Ahmedabad plane crash: ‘It looked like a bomb blast at first,’ says witness
Chaos at Ahmedabad morgue as staff struggles to address issues | Exclusive
Ahmedabad crash puts Boeing under lens again over recurring safety issues
Ground Report: Charred bodies, distraught families: Harrowing scenes at Ahmedabad hospital
Follow this space for more live updates
Live Updates
- 16 Jun 2025 7:53 AM IST
Cockpit Voice Recorder found
Officials investigating the Air India plane crash on Sunday confirmed that the Cockpit Voice Recorder black box has been found, a crucial discovery which will help identify the possible cause behind the deadly crash that killed 270 persons, including 241 persons on board.
Earlier, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) had confirmed that only the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) of the ill-fated plane was found.
The officials confirmed the recovery of black boxes to P K Mishra, the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on Sunday inspected the Air India plane crash site in Ahmedabad and also visited the civil hospital where injured persons are undergoing treatment.
Mishra chaired a high-level review meeting at Circuit House here and discussed ongoing relief, rescue, and investigation efforts with senior officials from the Central and state governments, Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), and Airports Authority of India, an official release said.
"Chairing a high-level review meeting at Circuit House, here Dr Mishra discussed ongoing relief, rescue, and investigation efforts with senior officials from the Central and State Governments, AAIB, and Airports Authority of India," a PIB release said.
The AAIB has launched a detailed investigation, and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting a parallel probe under international protocols, as the aircraft is American-made, the release stated.
"Officials confirmed to Dr Mishra that the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) have been located and secured," it said.
With the finding of both black boxes of the plane, it would be easy to find the cause of the crash for investigators.
