“They’re all saying the same thing – that there are too many bodies, and it’s hard to identify them,” says Thakur Ravi Prahlad, who has been frantically searching for any trace of his mother Sharlaben and his two-year-old daughter. Both were at the BJ Medical College hostel canteen in Ahmedabad when Air India flight A171 crashed into the building on Thursday afternoon.
Sharlaben worked at the canteen, cooking meals for the hostel residents, while Thakur was involved in catering services at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. At the same hospital, DNA samples are now being collected from desperate relatives. But official confirmations are still pending.
“I haven’t eaten since yesterday. I’ve been looking everywhere, but there’s still no sign of them,” says Thakur’s sister, Anita Ben.
The Boeing Dreamliner had crashed into a medical college hostel, killing passengers, crew and people on the ground, bringing the toll to at least 290 in one of India’s deadliest air crashes in decades. It remains unclear why the Dreamliner had crashed. Reports quoting officials claimed that one of the black boxes has been recovered. An investigation is underway by teams from India, UK and US.
Watch.
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