Remains of all but one AI-171 victim identified

All the remains found from the Air India flight 171 crash site in Ahmedabad have been identified using DNA matching or facial recognition, barring one case, Gujarat health department officials said on Tuesday, tentatively putting the death toll from India's worst aviation disaster in decades at 260.

- Maulik Pathak

AHMEDABAD:

"So far, the death toll due to the plane crash is 260. This includes 241 people on board and 19 non-passengers. No new bodies have been recovered from the site in the last few days," said a senior government official.

One DNA sample that probably is of a passenger is yet to be matched successfully, said Dr. Rakesh Joshi, Superintendent of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. An official aware of the matter said the DNA sample extracted seems to be in a fragmented or degraded state, creating difficulties in matching it with samples provided by relatives. "Fresh re-sampling is required," said the official.