AHMEDABAD: Mourners covered white coffins with flowers in India on Sunday as funerals were held for some of the at least 279 people 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 on the jetliner.
There was one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the London-bound Air India jet when it crashed Thursday into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground as well.
“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.
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.
The majority of those injured on the ground have been discharged, Patel said, with one or two remaining in critical care.
Cause of the disaster
Indian authorities have yet to identify the cause of the disaster and have ordered inspections of Air India’s Dreamliners.
Authorities announced Sunday that the second black box, the cockpit voice recorder, had been recovered. This may offer investigators more clues about what went wrong.
Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday he hoped decoding the first black box, the flight data recorder, would “give an in-depth insight” into the circumstances of the crash.
Imtiyaz Ali, who was still waiting for a DNA match to find his brother, said the airline should have supported families faster.
“I’m disappointed in them. It is their duty,” said Ali, who was contacted by the airline on Saturday.
“Next step is to find out the reason for this accident. We need to know,” he told AFP.
One person escaped alive from the wreckage, British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, whose brother was also on the flight.
Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members.
Among the passengers was a father of two young girls, Arjun Patoliya, who had traveled to India to scatter his wife’s ashes following her death weeks earlier.
“I really hope that those girls will be looked after by all of us,” said Anjana Patel, the mayor of London’s Harrow borough where some of the victims lived.
“We don’t have any words to describe how the families and friends must be feeling,” she added.
While communities were in mourning, one woman recounted how she survived by arriving late at the airport.
“The airline staff had already closed the check-in,” said 28-year-old Bhoomi Chauhan.
“At that moment, I kept thinking that if only we had left a little earlier, we wouldn’t have missed our flight,” she told the Press Trust of India news agency.
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Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims
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Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims
- Funerals were held in India for some of the at least 279 people 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
Driver behind Liverpool football parade ‘horror’ warned of long jail term
- His rampage “generated horror in those who had attended what they thought would be a day of joyfulness,” the prosecution said
LONDON: A driver who unleashed road rage horror on fans celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League victory, injuring over 100 people by plowing into them with his car, broke down Monday at his sentencing hearing.
Paul Doyle wiped away tears as prosecutors relayed how the 54-year-old lost his temper and drove into the crowds.
His rampage “generated horror in those who had attended what they thought would be a day of joyfulness,” the prosecution said.
Doyle dramatically changed his plea during his trial in November, admitting to deliberately driving his car through the crowds in Liverpool city center in May.
“The defendant had used the vehicle as a weapon,” injuring 134 people over the course of less than 10 minutes as he lost his temper, prosecuting lawyer Paul Greaney told Liverpool Crown Court as the two-day sentencing hearing opened.
“Paul Doyle just lost his temper in his desire to get to where he wanted to get to. In a rage he drove into the crowd, and when he did so, he intended to cause people within the crowd serious harm,” Greaney told the court.
Doyle pleaded guilty to 31 criminal charges last month, including causing grievous bodily harm with intent, wounding with intent, affray and dangerous driving.
Judge Andrew Menary told Doyle to prepare for “a custodial sentence of some length.”
The maximum sentence for the most serious offenses is life imprisonment.
Doyle had previously denied the criminal charges against him, and prosecutors said he had planned to contest them by arguing that he drove into crowds after panicking.
But he made the unexpected U-turn on the second day of his trial, pleading guilty to each of the 31 counts, which relate to 29 victims aged between six months and 77 years old.
Doyle left the cul-de-sac where he lived with his family in a Liverpool suburb on May 26 in his grey Ford Galaxy Titanium.
He was due to collect his friend who had joined the hundreds of thousands of fans celebrating Liverpool’s victory in claiming a record-equalling 20th English top-flight title.
- ‘Serious harm’ -
In what appears to be an extreme case of road rage, over the course of seven minutes, Doyle instead drove his nearly two-ton vehicle seemingly indiscriminately into pedestrians.
“He was prepared to cause those in the crowd, even children, serious harm if necessary to achieve his aim of getting through,” Greaney said.
Some 50 people required hospital treatment, according to Merseyside Police.
Doyle’s youngest victim was a six-month-old baby who was flung from his pram, but was miraculously unhurt.
Police swiftly declared that the incident was not terrorism, and it was later clarified that Doyle was “completely sober.”
Dashcam footage from his car played in court showed Doyle getting increasingly angry as he drove his vehicle through his crowd, hurling insults and screaming as he veered directly into people.
The harrowing clip showed pedestrians thrown against the car’s bonnet and others getting stuck under the vehicle, amid cries of horror.
The car eventually stopped after several people including children became trapped beneath it and a pedestrian jumped inside for the final 16 seconds of its ill-fated journey, according to prosecutors.
A man who got in the vehicle pushed the gear into park, helping bring it to a stop.
Doyle briefly joined the Royal Marines after school, according to media reports, later working in IT and cybersecurity.
People who knew him told UK media he was a “family-man” interested in fitness and well-liked by his neighbors.
He was registered as the owner of a headwear business, FarOut Caps, and appeared to use the company’s social media account to post about cryptocurrency and video games.
Paul Doyle wiped away tears as prosecutors relayed how the 54-year-old lost his temper and drove into the crowds.
His rampage “generated horror in those who had attended what they thought would be a day of joyfulness,” the prosecution said.
Doyle dramatically changed his plea during his trial in November, admitting to deliberately driving his car through the crowds in Liverpool city center in May.
“The defendant had used the vehicle as a weapon,” injuring 134 people over the course of less than 10 minutes as he lost his temper, prosecuting lawyer Paul Greaney told Liverpool Crown Court as the two-day sentencing hearing opened.
“Paul Doyle just lost his temper in his desire to get to where he wanted to get to. In a rage he drove into the crowd, and when he did so, he intended to cause people within the crowd serious harm,” Greaney told the court.
Doyle pleaded guilty to 31 criminal charges last month, including causing grievous bodily harm with intent, wounding with intent, affray and dangerous driving.
Judge Andrew Menary told Doyle to prepare for “a custodial sentence of some length.”
The maximum sentence for the most serious offenses is life imprisonment.
Doyle had previously denied the criminal charges against him, and prosecutors said he had planned to contest them by arguing that he drove into crowds after panicking.
But he made the unexpected U-turn on the second day of his trial, pleading guilty to each of the 31 counts, which relate to 29 victims aged between six months and 77 years old.
Doyle left the cul-de-sac where he lived with his family in a Liverpool suburb on May 26 in his grey Ford Galaxy Titanium.
He was due to collect his friend who had joined the hundreds of thousands of fans celebrating Liverpool’s victory in claiming a record-equalling 20th English top-flight title.
- ‘Serious harm’ -
In what appears to be an extreme case of road rage, over the course of seven minutes, Doyle instead drove his nearly two-ton vehicle seemingly indiscriminately into pedestrians.
“He was prepared to cause those in the crowd, even children, serious harm if necessary to achieve his aim of getting through,” Greaney said.
Some 50 people required hospital treatment, according to Merseyside Police.
Doyle’s youngest victim was a six-month-old baby who was flung from his pram, but was miraculously unhurt.
Police swiftly declared that the incident was not terrorism, and it was later clarified that Doyle was “completely sober.”
Dashcam footage from his car played in court showed Doyle getting increasingly angry as he drove his vehicle through his crowd, hurling insults and screaming as he veered directly into people.
The harrowing clip showed pedestrians thrown against the car’s bonnet and others getting stuck under the vehicle, amid cries of horror.
The car eventually stopped after several people including children became trapped beneath it and a pedestrian jumped inside for the final 16 seconds of its ill-fated journey, according to prosecutors.
A man who got in the vehicle pushed the gear into park, helping bring it to a stop.
Doyle briefly joined the Royal Marines after school, according to media reports, later working in IT and cybersecurity.
People who knew him told UK media he was a “family-man” interested in fitness and well-liked by his neighbors.
He was registered as the owner of a headwear business, FarOut Caps, and appeared to use the company’s social media account to post about cryptocurrency and video games.
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