Ahmedabad plane crash: Endless wait for kin of victims to get mortal remains

Ahmedabad: 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.

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.

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.

"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, told PTI on Monday.

Sukhadare has been here since the tragedy with the father and brother of Songhare, whose family resides at Dombivli in Maharashtra's Thane district.

Similar is the case for crew member Maithili Patil's relatives, who are residents of Nhava in Navi Mumbai and arrived here on June 12 after the accident.

Relatives of 32-year-old Anil Khimani, who did masonry and carpentry work in Gujarat's Kutch and was on board the ill-fated flight, have also been camping in Ahmedabad following the incident.

Since the plane crashed on June 12, his father is here, said Mansukh, who identified himself as a relative of Khimani. His father gave his sample for DNA matching on June 12.

"An ambulance, assigned by the government to take back the body, has also arrived from Kutch, but we are yet to get Anil's mortal remains," Mansukh said.

Even the family of Akash Patni (15) is waiting for his body.

He was resting on a charpoy next to the tea stall run by his mother in the residential complex premises of the B J Medical College where the aircraft crashed.

The impact of the crash and subsequent fire was such that Patni got no time to escape and was charred.

"We got a call from the hospital yesterday that the DNA samples have matched, but we are yet to get the body," Akash's aunt Madhuben Patni said.

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.

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.

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 in an accident of this magnitude, it can take time due to the condition of 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.

It should take a couple of more days to finish the process, Mishra hoped.