Most bodies are charred or mutilated, and the local authorities are working to identify them by matching DNA samples
\n Ahmedabad
\nAt least 270 bodies have been recovered after a London-bound Air India plane crashed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, as a rescue team continues to search the site of India\u2019s worst aviation disaster in three decades.
\nThe Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with 242 people on board and 125,000 litres of fuel, lost altitude seconds after takeoff on Thursday and crashed into a residential area, killing all but one on board and at least two dozen others on the ground.
\nDhaval Gameti, a doctor at Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, told The Associated Press news agency on Saturday that they have received 270 bodies so far.
\nMost bodies were charred or mutilated, and the local authorities are working to identify them by matching DNA samples as their relatives waited to perform their last rites. Authorities said it normally takes up to 72 hours to complete DNA matching.
\nNearly 10 bodies \u2013 not of the passengers \u2013 found at the crash site have been returned to their families after identification, a local official told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
\nOf the 242 passengers and crew on board the Air India plane, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were British, seven were Portuguese, and one was Canadian.
\nThe lone survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, is under observation at the Civil Hospital for his impact wounds. Gameti said he was \u201cdoing very well and will be ready to be discharged any time soon\u201d.
\nIndia\u2019s Civil Aviation Minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, said the flight\u2019s digital data recorder, or the black box, was recovered from a rooftop near the crash site by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash. He said the government will look into all possible theories of what could have caused the crash.
\nThe AAIB said it was working with \u201cfull force\u201d to extract the data, which is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings. Meanwhile, forensic teams are still looking for a second black box.
\nJeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety consultant and former crash investigator for both the US National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration, told the AP the investigators should be able to answer some important questions about what caused the crash as soon as next week as long as the flight data recorder is in good shape.
\nGuzzetti said the investigators are likely looking into whether wing flaps were set correctly, the engine lost power, alarms were going off inside the cockpit, and if the plane\u2019s crew correctly logged information about the hot temperature outside, and the weight of the fuel and passengers. Mistakes in the data could result in the wing flaps being set incorrectly, he added.
\nThere are currently about 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide, and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts. The United States planemaker Boeing, whose planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft, said it was in touch with Air India and stood \u201cready to support them\u201d over the incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most bodies are charred or mutilated, and the local authorities are working to identify them by matching DNA samples Ahmedabad At least 270 bodies have been recovered after a London-bound Air India plane crashed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, as a rescue team continues to search the site of India\u2019s worst aviation disaster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-484285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n