DNA profiling for plane crash victims ends, toll stands at 260

The final human toll in the Air India Flight 171 tragedy stands at 260 people, officials in Gujarat announced, two weeks after the Boeing 787 crashed shortly after take-off from the city's only airport in the deadliest aviation incident in the country in three decades.

- Maulik Pathak

AHMEDABAD:

The final death toll of 260—comprising 241 passengers and crew members aboard the aircraft and 19 people killed on the ground—is lower than initial estimates of 270 fatalities.

"The plane crash death toll stands at 260. We will not reveal victim identities. All bodies have been recovered and identified, with the mortal remains of all of them handed over to their families," additional chief secretary of health and family welfare Dhananjay Dwivedi told HT.

Dr Rakesh Joshi, the head of Ahmedabad civil hospital, told HT that all remains were identified and verified using DNA matching and facial recognition.

"The last body, of a passenger, was identified on Friday night using DNA match," Joshi said.

The London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college hostel complex approximately 30 seconds after take-off on 12 June from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, destroying portions of the building and bursting into flames.

Among the victims were junior doctors, staff at the hospital complex and people on the street below. One passenger, in what has been described as a providential escape, walked out of the crash after he was thrown further away from the burning wreckage.

The impact of the crash and the inferno that followed meant remains of most victims, except for most of the 19 casualties on the ground, were unrecognisable, requiring officials to seek DNA samples from family members to help make the identification.