Heat of Air India crash hinders DNA identification

AHMEDABAD, India – The intensity of the flames from the crash of

Air India Flight 171

has made the identification of passenger remains a mammoth task, medical officials in India said on June 15, as relatives of more than 200 victims waited outside a mortuary for a third day.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was carrying 125,000 litres of fuel when it crashed on June 12, a full load for a nearly 10-hour flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick Airport near London.

Senior health officials in Ahmedabad told a visiting delegation on June 14 that initial findings indicated that temperatures at the crash site reached 1,500 deg C, according to two people who attended the briefing. Such temperatures are more than enough to incinerate bodies.

Mr H.P. Sanghvi, director of the forensic lab where most of the DNA samples are being sent, told the Indian news media that the damage to the bodies made collection and testing difficult.

“These high temperatures affect the DNA present in various parts of the body,” he noted. “This process is very complex.”

By June 15 evening, only 35 bodies had been turned over to relatives, among an overall official death toll of 270 from inside the plane and on the ground.

Eight of the bodies, mostly of people killed at the medical school campus where the plane crashed, were identified and released on June 13. Others were given to relatives starting on June 14 evening, when DNA results began coming in.

Among the victims identified through DNA tests by June 15 afternoon was Mr Vijay Rupani, who served as the state of Gujarat’s top elected official until 2021, according to Mr Harsh Sanghavi, the home minister in Gujarat, where Ahmedabad is the largest city.

In a sign of the damaged state of the bodies, the remains released to family members on June 15 were done so under tight security. Some family members said officials told them they were not allowed to open coffins, and that they had to move on with cremations and burials swiftly.

Only one passenger among the 242 on board survived. NYTIMES