Indian authorities announced on Wednesday that they had identified the bodies of more than 200 victims of Air India Flight 171, which crashed six days ago in the city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat state, northwestern India.
“Thanks to DNA, 202 bodies have been identified,” Harsh Sanghavi, a Gujarat state minister, said on X.
The Boeing 787 crashed on Thursday in a residential area of Ahmedabad within a minute after takeoff en route to London’s Gatwick Airport, killing at least 279 people, according to the latest official toll. It was the worst air disaster in the world since 2014.
According to the Indian Civil Aviation Authority, the long-haul aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. Only one passenger, seated near an emergency exit at the front of the aircraft, survived the crash. According to the latest figures, at least 38 people were killed on the ground.
Civil aviation investigators have recovered the plane’s two black boxes, which record cockpit conversations and technical flight parameters.
According to preliminary findings, the pilot made an emergency call shortly after takeoff.
Video footage released after the disaster shows the plane unable to gain altitude and then crashing heavily to the ground in an orange ball of fire.
Thecivil aviation authority ordered an inspection of the 33 other B-787s in service in the Air India fleet "as a precaution." These inspections revealed "no major concerns," the civil aviation authority said on Tuesday evening.
The aircraft and maintenance systems were found to comply with current safety standards, it added.
