85 bodies pulled out from debris; 19 identified

KARACHI: Bodies of 85 passengers of the A320 which crashed on Friday afternoon in the Model Colony had been retrieved from the debris and taken to two major hospitals in the city, the Sindh health department officials said adding that only 19 bodies had been identified so far as most of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition.

“Rescue workers have so far pulled out 85 bodies from the debris of the aircraft which crashed in the Model Colony this afternoon a few seconds before landing. All these bodies are charred and burnt beyond recognition,” Meeran Yousuf, a spokeswoman for the Sindh health department, told The News on Friday night.

Meeran said so far 19 bodies had been identified while the remaining 62 bodies were unrecognizable and added that DNA samples were being taken from the bodies for identification.

“There are 44 bodies at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) while 29 bodies have been taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK). Seven of the bodies have been identified so far," Meeran Yousuf said adding that that two people also survived and were undergoing treatment at two different hospitals in the city.

The Executive Director JPMC, Dr. Seemin Jamali, said of the 44 bodies received at the JPMC, six had been identified so far. “They are Muhammad Tahir, s/o Abdul Majeed, age 35 years, Faryal Rasool, d/o Gulam Rasool, age 27 years, Sayadia Saima Imran, w/o Syed Imran Hassan, age 35 years, Barira Basharat, Captain Sajjad Gul and Farhan Qadir.

Authorities at the CHK said they had so far received 29 bodies from the site of the plane crash and added that a team from the office of police surgeon's office had started collecting samples from these bodies for DNA testing as these bodies were badly burnt and could not be recognized.

Health department authorities said they had set up a counter at the Jinnah International Airport Karachi where mother, father and siblings of the deceased could give their samples for DNA tests for the identification of the bodies and added that relatives of the deceased could also call on the CPLC helpline for help.

They said samples of the deceased and their blood relatives would be sent to the forensic science lab at the ICCBS, University of Karachi, for identification.