Air India plane crash live updates: First funerals held as 30 bodies handed to grieving families – UK Times

Funerals were held for some of the victims killed in one of the deadliest plane crashes in decades in Ahmedabad.

Health officials have begun returning the first bodies identified through DNA testing to grieving families in the western city of Ahmedabad, though most relatives are still waiting.

“They said it would take 48 hours. But it’s been four days and we haven’t received any response,” Rinal Christian, 23, whose elder brother was a passenger on the jetliner, told ABC News.

There was only one survivor among the 242 passengers and crew on board the London-bound Air India jet when it crashed into a residential area of Ahmedabad on Thursday, also killing at least 38 people on the ground.

Indian aviation officials have confirmed the pilot issued distress calls before the Gatwick-bound flight crashed in Gujarat state on Thursday (12 June), killing 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner departed from Ahmedabad airport in the western state of Gujarat at 1.39pm local time (8.09am BST). But after issuing a mayday call, it crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar just five minutes after taking off, India’s civil aviation authority confirmed.

“When will the bodies be given?” he asked, breaking down in front of television cameras and senior officers. His son Harshit and daughter-in-law Pooja Patel were among the 242 passengers and crew aboard the Air India Express flight that crashed minutes after take-off on Thursday.

Dr Rajnish Patel, additional medical superintendent of the city’s Civil Hospital, attempted to pacify the grief-stricken father. “You will receive a call,” he said. “Please come to the hospital only after that.”