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All but one of 260 Air India crash victims identified

One DNA sample remains to be tested as Indian authorities say they've identified 259 bodies recovered from the horrific crash.
Sumit KhannaBy Sumit Khanna

All but one of 260 Air India crash victims identified

One DNA sample remains to be tested as Indian authorities say they've identified 259 bodies recovered from the horrific crash.
Sumit KhannaBy Sumit Khanna

Indian authorities have identified all but one of 260 bodies recovered following an Air India plane crash 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 ground.

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“The site of the crash is still being cleared,” said Rakesh Joshi, superintendent of Ahmedabad civil hospital. “Unless we are certain that no additional victims are going to be found, we cannot declare the final death toll.”

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

The plane’s black box remains in India and is being examined by the aircraft accident investigation body, news agency ANI reported, citing aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu.

Naidu’s comments came following a media report that the flight data recorder would be sent to the United States for analysis.

“Black box of the crashed AI 171 flight is still in India and it is being examined by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB),” Naidu said, according to an ANI post on social media platform X.

The Indian government said on Thursday a decision on where the decoding of the recorders would take place would be made after the AAIB has made a “due assessment” of all technical, safety and security considerations.

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