Boeing 787 crash: the slow process of identifying the victims of Air India flight 171 continues

Following Thursday's crash of the Air India Boeing 787, which killed at least 279 people, the long process of identifying the victims of the accident continued in Ahmedabad, northwest India, on Monday June 16. By Monday morning, the authorities had identified 92 victims, thanks to DNA samples provided by their relatives, Dr. Rajnish Patel of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital told reporters.

A total of 47 bodies were returned to their families, enabling the first funerals to be held in the city and beyond on Monday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists observed. Many relatives expressed frustration and dismay at the slow pace of these operations. “They told us it would take forty-eight hours (...), but we still have no answer,” Rinal Christian, 23, whose older brother died, told AFP on Sunday.

Air India flight 171 crashed on Thursday at 1:39 pm (10:09 am Paris time), less than a minute after taking off from London's Gatwick airport, according to the Indian Civil Aviation Authority. The aircraft was carrying 242 people, including 230 passengers - 169 Indians, 53 Britons, 7 Portuguese and one Canadian - and 12 crew members. This is the world's worst air disaster since 2014.

Only one passenger, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, miraculously survived the plane crashing into buildings in a neighborhood beyond the airport runway. He was seated near an emergency exit at the front of the aircraft. At least 38 people were killed on the ground, according to the latest official report.

On Sunday, civil aviation investigators discovered the Boeing's second black box, the one that records conversations in the cockpit. The first, which contains the technical parameters of the flight (speed, altitude, trajectory, engines...) had been found on Friday in the tail of the plane, almost intact, on top of a building.

According to the initial investigation, the pilot made an emergency call just after takeoff, and the plane crashed heavily into an orange fireball. India's Minister of Civil Aviation, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, promised that “whatever is necessary will be done” to determine the cause of the disaster.