All but one of 260 Air India crash victims identified

AHMEDABAD: Authorities in India's Gujarat state on Tuesday said that they had identified all but one of 260 bodies recovered following an Air India plane crash earlier this month in the western city of Ahmedabad.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board, bound for London's Gatwick Airport, lost height seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad on June 12 and erupted in a fireball as it hit a medical college hostel.

There was one survivor among those on the plane, and the crash also killed 19 people on the ground.

The death count was below the authorities' earlier estimate of 270 but officials remained cautious on the final toll.

"We have identified 259 victims. They include 240 passengers and 19 non-passengers. The DNA test result of one passenger is still awaited," said Rakesh Joshi, superintendent of Ahmedabad civil hospital.

"The site of the crash is still being cleared. Unless we are certain that no additional victims are going to be found, we cannot declare the final death toll," Joshi added.

The remains of the 256 people have been handed over to their families, the local government said in a statement, adding that 253 victims were identified through DNA sample matching and the remaining six through facial identification.

The development comes days after the country's issued a warning to Air India for "repeated and serious violations" related to pilot duty scheduling and oversight.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) directed Air India to remove three company executives from crew scheduling roles — a divisional vice president, a chief manager of crew scheduling and one planning executive — for lapses linked to flights from Bengaluru to London on May 16 and May 17 that exceeded the stipulated pilot flight time limit of 10 hours.

The June 20 order cited "systemic failures in scheduling protocol and oversights" and criticised the lack of strict disciplinary measures against responsible officials.

It is to be noted that Air India was taken over by the Tata Group in 2022 and faces many challenges in its attempts to rebuild its image, after years of criticism from travellers for poor service.