Grieving families gathered in India on Sunday to hold funerals for their loved ones killed in one of the deadliest aviation disasters in recent decades, which claimed at least 279 lives.
Authorities have begun releasing the bodies of victims identified through DNA testing. In Ahmedabad, white coffins were delivered to mourning relatives.
“My heart is very heavy. How do we hand over the bodies to the families?” said Tushar Leuva, an NGO worker involved in recovery efforts.
The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed Thursday shortly after takeoff, slamming into a residential area of Ahmedabad. All but one of the 242 passengers and crew onboard died, along with at least 38 people on the ground.
“How will they react when they open the gate? But we’ll have to do it,” Leuva told AFP from outside the city’s mortuary.
One relative, speaking anonymously, said they were instructed not to open the coffin upon receiving it. Eyewitnesses described horrific scenes, including severely burned bodies and scattered remains.
The aircraft became a fireball on impact, crashing into buildings used by medical staff. Victims’ families have been providing DNA samples to assist with identification efforts. As of Sunday morning, 31 victims had been positively identified.
“This is a meticulous and slow process—it has to be done with great care,” said Dr. Rajnish Patel of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. Most of the injured on the ground have been discharged, with only a few still in critical care.
The cause of the crash remains unknown. Indian aviation authorities have ordered inspections of Air India’s fleet of Dreamliners.
Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu expressed hope that data from the recovered black box will shed light on the disaster.
The lone survivor, British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, miraculously escaped the wreckage. His brother, however, was among the deceased.
Air India confirmed that the flight carried 169 Indian nationals, 53 British citizens, seven Portuguese, one Canadian, and 12 crew members.
Among the passengers was Arjun Patoliya, a father of two young girls, who had traveled to India to scatter his late wife’s ashes.
“I really hope those girls will be cared for by all of us,” said Anjana Patel, mayor of London’s Harrow borough, home to several victims. “We can’t find the words to express what the families and friends must be going through.”
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Amid the heartbreak, one woman narrowly avoided the tragedy. Bhoomi Chauhan, 28, survived only because she arrived late at the airport.
“The airline had already closed check-in,” she told the Press Trust of India. “At that moment, I kept thinking—if only we had left a little earlier, we wouldn’t have missed our flight.”
