Most bodies have been burnt or cut, and local governments are working to identify them by matching DNA samples.
At least 270 bodies have been recovered after an air India plane surrounded by London crashed in Ahmedabad, West India, as rescue teams continue to search for locations for India's worst aviation disaster in 30 years.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was on board with 242 people, 125,000 liters of fuel, lost altitude after taking off Thursday, crashing into a residential area, killing everyone except one on board.
Dhaval Gameti, a doctor at Ahmedabad's Municipal Hospital, told Associated Press on Saturday that he had received 270 bodies so far.
Most institutions are burnt or cut, and local governments are working to identify them by matching DNA samples while their relatives wait for their final rituals. Officials said it usually takes up to 72 hours to complete the DNA matching.
Nearly 10 groups found at the crash site, not passengers, were returned to their families with identification.
Of the 242 passengers and crew on the Air India plane, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were British, seven were Portuguese and one was Canadian.
The sole survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, has been observed at a civil hospital for his impact wounds. Gameti said he was “working very well and ready to be released from hospital soon.”
India's civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarap said the flight's digital data recorder, or black box, had been recovered from the rooftop near the crash site by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). He said the government will investigate all possible theories of what could have caused the crash.
AAIB said it is working with “full power” to extract data. This is expected to reveal information about engine and control settings. Meanwhile, the forensic team is still looking for a second black box.
Jeff Gutzetti, an aviation safety consultant and a former crash researcher for both the National Traffic Safety Commission and the Federal Aviation Administration, told the Associated Press that investigators should be able to answer some key questions about the cause of the crash next week, as long as the flight data recorder is in good condition.
Guzzetti said investigators are likely to be looking into whether the wing flaps are set correctly, whether the engine has lost power and the alarm is off in the cockpit, and whether the plane's crew correctly recorded information on high temperatures outside and fuel and passenger weight. A mistake in the data could result in the wing flap being misaligned, he added.
According to experts, about 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft around the world have now been a fatal collision in their 16-year business worldwide. Boeing, a US plan maker whose planes are plagued by safety issues of other types of aircraft, said it was in contact with Air India and “ready to support them” about the incident.
