NEW DELHI, June 24: The final death toll in the London-bund Air India Boeing Dreamliner crash within seconds of taking off from Ahmedabad on June 12, has been officially put at 275 including 24 on-board the flight and 34 on the ground, the Gujarat Health Department disclosed on Tuesday.
It was the first official death toll given of the crash. Since the flight to London crashed on June 12, there has been no official announcement about the total number of deaths. The authorities had said a figure could be arrived at only after the DNA matching took place.
Among those killed in the crash was the former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, who was taking the flight to London to bring back his wife who was with their daughter there for the last six months.
Officials of the health department said all the bodies have now been recovered and so far, 260 bodies have been identified through DNA matching and six by facial recognition.
Among the deceased were 120 men, 124 women, and 16 children — 256 bodies have been handed over to families so far. The DNA identification of the remaining bodies is still in progress.
The Boeing Dreamliner bound for London had crashed seconds after the take-off, landing on a hostel of medical students in the Ahmedabad civil hospital complex just outside the airport perimeter. Only one passenger out of the 242 on board had survived. It is not yet known what caused the crash. The black box of the aircraft is being examined.
Asked about media reports suggesting the black box is damaged and could be sent abroad for data extraction, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu called it “speculation”. “The black box is very much in India, and it is currently being investigated by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB),” he said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
