Days after the tragic Air India flight crash in Ahmedabad, which killed at least 270 people, every corner of the city’s civil hospital bore an atmosphere of grief and mourning.
The flight, a London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was carrying 242 people, including 10 crew members. Only one passenger survived the crash, which occurred minutes after takeoff in the early hours of Thursday.
An official death toll hasn’t been released yet, but according to the information received from the hospital and police sources, so far, the hospital has received between 265 to 270 bodies. Till 7 pm on June 13, DNA samples of 219 relatives have been taken.
They are now waiting for the DNA sample report that will be released on Sunday, after which, they can take the burnt and half-burnt bodies of their loved ones home. Here we met a young man whose girlfriend has died. We met a father whose daughters have died. For them, every minute feels like a century.
Sanket Goswami, a boy from Mehsana, Gujarat, was going to London to study. But he died in the plane crash. His family members are not talking to the media because authorities have told Goswami's mother that Sanket is still admitted in the hospital.
According to the information received so far, eight bodies have been handed over to the relatives. Out of these, two bodies are from Rajasthan, one from Madhya Pradesh and the rest of the bodies are of the deceased from different districts of Gujarat.
In the same plane were Mumbai resident Javed Ali Syed, his wife and two children. They had come to India to celebrate Bakrid and meet their mother. This family first came to Ahmedabad from Mumbai and from here, left for London. Unfortunately, they became victims of the accident.
Apart from the passengers on the plane, the dead also included people running shops around the hostel mess of the BJ Medical College, where one of the parts of the flight crashed.
Watch our ground report.
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