Unimaginable families mourn dead in Air India crash

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AHMEDABAD, India – In an echoing hall in India’s Ahmedabad, mourning families gave DNA samples on June 13 to identify relatives missing after a London-bound passenger jet crashed in a residential area.

At least 265 people onboard and on the ground were killed when the Air India 787-8 Dreamliner smashed into a residential area soon after takeoff on June 12. Just one passenger miraculously survived the giant fireball.

Mr Ashfaque Nanabawa, 40, said he had come to find his cousin Akeel Nanabawa, who had been onboard with his wife and three-year-old daughter.

He said they had spoken as his cousin sat in the plane just before takeoff.

“He called us and he said, ‘I am in the plane and I have boarded safely and everything was okay’. That was his last call.”

Mr Nanabawa, speaking in the early hours of the morning of June 13, said he and his family had given DNA samples, but had yet to “identify any of the bodies”.

‘Heartbreaking’

Indian police said at least 265 bodies had been recovered from the smouldering crash site – both from the wreckage of the plane and the medical staff accommodation which the burning jet crashed into.

The toll may rise further as more bodies are located.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the crash “heartbreaking beyond words”.

Home Minister Amit Shah, who visited the crash site and those injured in hospital on the evening of June 12, said forensic laboratories would “complete the DNA testing in the shortest possible time”.