Ahmedabad crash LIVE: DNA samples of 80 victims matched, bodies of 33 handed over to families
The government has assigned a special team to assist each deceased family, consisting of a senior officer, a police officer, and a professional counsellor
Three days after the London-bound Air India plane AI171 crashed in Ahmedabad, authorities have so far identified 47 victims through DNA testing, and 24 bodies have been handed over to their families.
Former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, who also died in the June 12 plane crash, was also among those identified.
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As many of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition or damaged otherwise, authorities are carrying out DNA tests to establish the identity of victims of the horrific tragedy.
“A total of 47 plane crash victims have been identified so far through DNA matching. Of these, bodies of 24 victims have been handed over to the respective families. These deceased were from Rajasthan and different parts of Gujarat,” Additional Civil Superintendent Dr Rajnish Patel told reporters on Sunday (June 15).
“The deceased were from Udaipur, Vadodara, Kheda, Mehsana, Arvalli, Ahmedabad and Botad districts,” Patel had said earlier on Sunday.
Alok Pandey, Relief Commissioner and Revenue Secretary of Gujarat, said the deceased from the state hailed from 18 of the 33 districts.
Also read | Air India crash puts spotlight back on poor infrastructure at airports
As many as 230 teams have been formed to coordinate with the families, and the kin of 11 foreign nationals who died in the tragedy have been contacted so far.
All but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 787-8 (AI171) and another 29 persons, including five MBBS students, on the ground were killed in the plane crash on Thursday.
The aircraft crashed into the campus of a medical college in Meghaninagar moments after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 1.39 pm on Thursday.
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- 15 Jun 2025 9:56 AM IST
High-level probe panel likely to meet tomorrow
The high-level panel to probe the deadly Air India flight crash is likely to hold its first meeting on Monday. The committee, headed by the Union home secretary, is expected to submit within three months its report detailing the causes of the accident that killed 241 passengers and many more on the ground. The civil aviation ministry said in a statement that the panel “will focus on formulating SOPs for preventing and handling such occurrences in the future”.
