At least 270 lives were lost in one of India's deadliest aviation disasters, which occurred when an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed just moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad, en route to London Gatwick Airport. The flight was reportedly carrying 241 passengers, and the plane plummeted into a medical college, causing substantial destruction and a fierce fireball that hindered identification efforts.
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board officials have been deployed to the crash site to conduct an independent investigation, as the aircraft is of American manufacture. Indian officials confirmed that both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, crucial in establishing the sequence of events leading to the catastrophe, have been recovered.
As the effort to identify victims continues, Dr. Rakesh Joshi, superintendent at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, reported that 99 victims have been identified through DNA comparisons with relatives. Bodies of 64 victims have been returned to their families, with efforts to expedite identification gaining momentum. "We’re making progress. The timeline for completing identifications could be just days away," Dr. Joshi stated.
Despite the devastating scale of the tragedy, authorities continue to work diligently to support families and uncover the causes behind this tragic incident.
