One Month After Air India Ahmedabad Crash: Doctor Recalls The Aviation Tragedy That Shook World

New Delhi: It has been a month since the tragic Air India crash in Ahmedabad, in which 260 people, including all but one of the 241 on board, were killed. On June 12, Air India AI 171 flight bound for London, Gatwick, crashed moments after take-off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The Boeing 787-8 crashed into a medical college complex in Meghaninagar soon after take-off, killing 241 of the 242 onboard and several on the ground, taking the death toll to 260.Dr Rakesh Joshi, Medical Superintendent, Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, recalled how his team of doctors and paramedics prepared themselves for the task as bodies of the victims and injured were being rushed to the hospital.    "Our entire team was immediately divided into groups. Some were in the room, some in the operation theatre, some in the triage. I still remember the one survivor who said he was a passenger. There was a hope that many people would have survived with just injuries. But that hope did not last long. Injured people kept coming. There were our children who were eating in the mess. And then the dead bodies started coming. We made it a green channel and transferred it to the PM (post mortem) room," Dr Joshi said. As rescue teams scrambled on the site, they faced significant challenges due to the extent of the damage. Authorities relied heavily on DNA testing to identify victims as bodies were charred beyond recognition. The final victim to be identified was 35-year-old Anil Khimani on June 29. He was identified through a second round of DNA testing."Identification was very difficult. DNA sampling was a challenge at that time. More doctors were deputed to the forensic department and everyone did post-mortem work to identify. The DNA sampling was done at Kaswati Bhawan. Within 3-4 hours, the family members were sampled. All the samples were properly tagged and sent to FSL and NFSU," he said. On Saturday, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau released a preliminary report on the plane crash, suggesting the aircraft’s fuel control switches were turned off, starving the engines of fuel and causing a loss of engine thrust shortly after takeoff.The report also found that one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel in the flight’s final moment. The other pilot replied he did not do so. The report based its finding on the data recovered from the plane’s black boxes, including combined cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders.Read MoreFuel To Both Engines Cut Off, Last Chat Between Pilots: Highlights From AAIB Report On Air India Plane Crash