Mangalore crash: Heart-rending scenes at hospital, two families claim one body

Two families from Kerala claimed the same body as heart-rending scenes were witnessed at the Wenlock Hospital with grieving relatives and friends going
through a traumatic experience of looking at scores of charred bodies to identify them.

Dazed relatives and friends of the victims of the Air India Express Boeing crash that killed 158 persons yesterday thronged the Government Wenlock hospital and made efforts through the night at the mortuary to identity their near and dear ones who were burnt beyond recognition.

Doctors and nurses at the hospital were stretched to handle the situation and carried on bravely with the focus on conducting the post mortem of the crash victims quickly to prevent the bodies from deteriorating.

Several victims were from Kasaragod and Kannur districts of neighbouring Kerala.

Priority was being given to post-mortem as identifying the badly-charred bodies has become more difficult now with rapid decomposition, Superintendent of Police (Kasaragod) P Prakash said.

At the hospital, relatives of the victims were seen trying hard to identify their loved ones with their faces covered with masks.

Many bodies were charred in the fire that consumed the aircraft after it crashed yesterday, making it difficult to identify them.

An Air India representative said the carrier had made arrangements to provide free coffins to family members to shift the bodies has after identification.

Forensic experts from Hyderabad have arrived here for a detailed DNA examination of the bodies as part of the identification process.

All the eight survivors of the crash, being treated at various hospitals in the city, were out of danger. Most of them had suffered cuts, bruises or minor burn injuries.

In one case, two families from Kerala have claimed the same body, but authorities said it would be handed over only after a DNA test.

Overcome by desperation, distraught relatives of victims were also putting pressure on authorities to expedite DNA tests to identify bodies, which doctors say might take a long time.

Father of Mohamed Ali, a cabin crew member, said he had asked authorities to expedite the DNA process, which official sources here said would begin only later in the day giving further time for identification of charred bodies.

"We want the DNA process to begin immediately so that we can be free of the unbearable agony," Ali’s father who flew here from Bhopal by a flight arranged by Indian Airlines said.

The parent of another victim expressed anguish over the 'long delay' over identifying dead bodies through DNA tests.

Senior doctors at the Government Wenlock Hospital said it would normally take 10 to 15 days for a DNA test, but in the present case, DNA experts from Hyderabad have assured that the process would be expedited.

The DNA expert team, led by Dr Madhusudan Reddy arrived here from Hyderabad this morning.