Air India crash families' year-long battle to identify remains of victims
Summary
A year ago, an Air India flight crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people including passengers and others on the ground. Families have faced a difficult and slow process to identify the victims' remains because many bodies were severely burned and mixed, causing delays and challenges in returning the remains to their loved ones.Key Facts
- The plane crashed 32 seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing 241 on board and 19 on the ground.
- One passenger survived the crash.
- The wreckage covered an area equal to five football fields and included a destroyed building for medical students.
- Many bodies were severely burned, making it hard to identify victims using fingerprints or facial features.
- Some victims’ remains were mixed together, leading to delays such as the Patel family waiting a month to cremate their parents.
- UK authorities have not yet identified a man whose remains were mixed with those of Shobhana Patel.
- Indian disaster and forensic teams learned lessons from this crash and issued new guidelines for victim identification.
- Families had to travel and work through language and procedural challenges to help identify their loved ones.
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