Tears As Families Hold Funerals For Victims Of Air India Crash
It was a day of anguish and harrowing silence in Ahmedabad on Sunday, as grief-stricken families began holding funerals for loved ones killed in Thursday’s tragic Air India crash that claimed at least 279 lives.
In what is now described as one of the world’s deadliest aviation disasters in decades, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner exploded into a fireball shortly after take-off, plummeting into a densely populated residential area and killing not only passengers and crew but also 38 people on the ground. Only one person, a British citizen, miraculously survived the crash.
White coffins bearing the remains of the victims, many of whom were burnt beyond recognition, were handed over to families after confirmation through painstaking DNA testing.
At Ahmedabad’s civil hospital mortuary, the air was heavy with mourning.
“My heart is very heavy, how do we give the bodies to the families?” lamented Tushar Leuva, a local NGO worker assisting with recovery efforts.
“How will they react when they open the gate? But we’ll have to do it,” he told AFP, visibly shaken.
Relatives were advised not to open the coffins due to the severe state of the remains. Many families had been queuing for hours to submit DNA samples, hoping to find closure amid the tragedy.
So far, only 31 of the bodies have been formally identified, according to officials, with more still awaiting results.
“This is a meticulous and slow process,” said Dr Rajnish Patel, who has been coordinating the hospital’s response.
The ill-fated flight was carrying 242 passengers and crew, including 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals, and a Canadian when it crashed.
Among the victims was Arjun Patoliya, a father of two, who had returned to India to scatter his late wife’s ashes.
“We don’t have words to describe how the families must be feeling,” said Anjana Patel, Mayor of London’s Harrow Borough, home to some of the victims.
“I really hope those girls will be looked after by all of us,” she added, referring to Patoliya’s orphaned daughters.
Indian aviation authorities have ordered immediate inspections of all Dreamliners in Air India’s fleet.
The country’s Aviation Minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, stated on Saturday that retrieving data from the black box will be crucial in determining the cause of the accident.
“It should give us an in-depth insight,” he assured.
In a bizarre twist of fate, 28-year-old Bhoomi Chauhan, who was booked on the flight, said she narrowly escaped death after arriving late at the airport.
“The airline staff had already closed check-in. At that moment, I kept thinking — if only we had left a little earlier…”
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