Air India Crash: Families Hold Funeral for Victims

Funerals began on Sunday in India for victims of the devastating Air India crash that claimed at least 279 lives, marking one of the world’s deadliest aviation disasters in recent decades.

According to a report by PUNCH, grieving families in Ahmedabad received the remains of their loved ones in white coffins, handed over by health officials after identification through DNA testing. Recovery workers and volunteers were present to support families through the heart-wrenching process.

“My heart is very heavy, how do we give the bodies to the families?” said Tushar Leuva, an NGO worker assisting with the efforts. “How will they react when they open the gate? But we’ll have to do it,” he told AFP at the mortuary on Saturday.

Recall that ASABAMETRO reported that the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed on Thursday, shortly after takeoff, erupting into a fireball as it plowed into a residential area used by medical personnel. All but one of the 242 passengers and crew aboard were killed, along with at least 38 people on the ground.

One grieving relative, who preferred to remain anonymous, told AFP that families had been advised not to open the coffins upon receipt. Witnesses described the grim aftermath, with many of the bodies badly burnt and remains scattered across the crash site.

Medical teams have been working around the clock to identify victims. “This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only,” explained Dr. Rajnish Patel of Ahmedabad’s civil hospital. As of Sunday morning, 31 victims had been formally identified through DNA matches.

The majority of those injured on the ground have since been discharged, though one or two individuals remain in critical condition, according to Dr. Patel.

Authorities have not yet released an official cause of the disaster. However, India’s Aviation Minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, confirmed that investigations are underway, including a full inspection of Air India’s fleet of Dreamliners. He added that decoding the flight data recorder, or black box, could “give an in-depth insight” into what went wrong.

There was one miraculous survivor: British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who escaped the wreckage even as his brother also on board perished.

According to Air India, the flight was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 British citizens, seven Portuguese, a Canadian, and 12 crew members.

Among the victims was Arjun Patoliya, a father of two young girls who had traveled to India to scatter his wife’s ashes after her recent passing.

“I really hope that those girls will be looked after by all of us,” said Anjana Patel, mayor of London’s Harrow borough, where some of the victims had lived. “We don’t have any words to describe how the families and friends must be feeling.”

While communities grieve, stories of fate continue to emerge. Bhoomi Chauhan, 28, was among those who narrowly avoided tragedy by arriving late at the airport.

“The airline staff had already closed the check-in,” she recalled. “At that moment, I kept thinking that if only we had left a little earlier, we wouldn’t have missed our flight,” she told the Press Trust of India.