AHMEDABAD – For the third consecutive day, search and recovery crews have been combing through the aftermath of one of India’s deadliest aviation tragedies. The Air India aircraft crashed in Gujarat state, resulting in a death toll of at least 270, as reported by officials on Saturday.
The incident involved a London-bound Boeing 787, which crashed into a medical college hostel within a residential zone of Ahmedabad’s northwestern city shortly after takeoff on Thursday. The disaster claimed the lives of 241 onboard passengers and at least 29 individuals on the ground, with one passenger miraculously surviving.
Recovery teams working until late Friday found at least 25 more bodies in the debris, officials said.
Dr. Dhaval Gameti from the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad informed The Associated Press that the hospital had received 270 deceased individuals. He also mentioned that the sole surviving passenger is still undergoing observation for his injuries.
“He is doing very well and will be ready to be discharged anytime soon,” Gameti said Saturday.
Hundreds of relatives of the crash victims have provided DNA samples at the hospital. Most bodies were charred or mutilated, making them unrecognizable.
Some relatives expressed frustration Saturday that the process was taking too long. Authorities say it normally takes up to 72 hours to complete DNA matching and they are expediting the process.
“Where are my children? Did you recover them?” asked Rafiq Abdullah, whose nephew, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren were on the flight. “I will have to ask questions. Government is not answering these questions.”
Another relative persistently asked hospital staff when his relative’s body would be handed over to the family for last rites.
“Give us the body,” the relative insisted.
Investigators on Friday recovered the plane’s digital flight data recorder, or the black box, which was recovered from a rooftop near the crash site and likely will lead to clues about the cause of the accident.
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said it had started working with “full force” to extract the data.
The device is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings, while the voice recorder will provide cockpit conversations, said Paul Fromme, a mechanical engineer with the U.K.-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Aviation safety consultant Jeff Guzzetti, a former crash investigator for both the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration, said investigators should be able to answer some important questions about what caused the crash as soon as next week as long as the flight data recorder is in good shape.
Investigators likely are looking at whether wing flaps were set correctly, the engine lost power, alarms were going off inside the cockpit and if the plane’s crew correctly logged information about the hot temperature outside and the weight of the fuel and passengers, Guzzetti said.
Mistakes in the data could result in the wing flaps being set incorrectly, he said.
Thursday’s Air India crash involved a 12-year-old Boeing 787. Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft.
There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts.
___
Hussain reported from Srinagar, India.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
