The aircraft crashed into a medical college campus in Meghaninagar just moments after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 1:39 p.m. on Thursday. Out of the 242 people on board, 241 lost their lives. The Air India Plane crash also killed 29 people on the ground.
Ahmedabad:
The family of a local filmmaker submitted their DNA samples after he went missing on Thursday. His phone’s last known location was only 700 meters from the Air India crash site.
The aircraft had taken off at 1:39 p.m. and crashed shortly after into a medical college campus in Meghaninagar. The impact killed nearly everyone on the flight and dozens on the ground.
Mahesh Kalawadia, also known as Mahesh Jirawala, is a music video director and lives in Naroda. His wife, Hetal, said he had gone to meet someone in the Law Garden area that day.
She said, “My husband called me at 1:14 p.m. He told me his meeting was over and he was heading home. But when he didn’t return, I tried calling him. His phone was switched off.”
After they informed the police, the last location of his mobile phone was tracked. It showed he was just 700 meters from where the crash happened.
“His phone stopped working around 1:40 p.m., right after the flight took off. Both his scooter and phone are missing,” she added. “He would never use the route where the phone was last tracked. That part doesn’t make sense. We gave our DNA samples to help find out if he was among those killed on the ground.”
Many bodies at the crash site were burned or severely damaged, making them hard to identify. Authorities have turned to DNA testing to confirm the identities of the victims.
Three days after the crash of Air India flight AI-171 in Ahmedabad, hospital officials said on Sunday that DNA tests had helped identify 47 victims so far. The total death count stands at 270.
