Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims

AHMEDABAD - Grieving families were due to hold funerals in India on June 15 for their relatives who were among at least 279 killed in one of the world’s worst plane crashes in decades.

Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing, delivering them in white coffins in the western city of Ahmedabad.

“My heart is very heavy, how do we give the bodies to the families?” said Mr Tushar Leuva, an NGO worker who has been helping with the recovery efforts.

There was just one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the Air India jet when it crashed Thursday into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground.

“How will they react when they open the gate? But we’ll have to do it,” Mr Leuva told AFP at the mortuary on June 14.

One victim’s relative who did not want to be named told AFP they had been instructed not to open the coffin when they receive it.

Witnesses reported seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it went down moments after takeoff, smashing into buildings used by medical staff.

Mourning relatives have been providing DNA samples to be matched with passengers, with 31 identified as of the morning of June 15.

“This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only,” Dr Rajnish Patel, a doctor at Ahmedabad’s civil hospital, said late on June 14.

The majority of those injured on the ground have been discharged, he added, with one or two remaining in critical care.