Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims

AHMEDABAD, India: Mourners covered white coffins with flowers in India on Sunday as funerals were held for some of at least 279 killed in one of the world´s worst plane crashes in decades.

Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing, delivering them to grieving relatives in the western city of Ahmedabad, but the wait went on for most families.

“They said it would take 48 hours. But it´s been four days and we haven´t received any response,” said Rinal Christian, 23, whose elder brother was a passenger. There was just one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the Air India jet when it crashed Thursday into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground.

“My brother was the sole breadwinner of the family,” Christian told AFP. “So what happens next?” At a crematorium in the city, around 20 to 30 mourners chanted prayers in a funeral ceremony for Megha Mehta, a passenger who had been working in London.

As of Sunday evening 47 crash victims have been identified, according to Rajnish Patel, a doctor at Ahmedabad´s civil hospital.

“This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only,” Patel said Saturday. One victim´s relative who did not want to be named told AFP they had been instructed not to open the coffin when they receive it.

Witnesses reported seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains. Workers went on clearing debris from the site on Sunday, while police inspected the area. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it went down moments after takeoff, smashing into buildings used by medical staff.