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.
Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims
https://arab.news/n4847
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
Palestine activists on hunger strike in UK prisons ‘face death’ if government fails to act
- One activist, who has refused food since Nov. 2, was rushed to hospital after collapsing
- None of the 8 Palestine Action members have been convicted of a crime
LONDON: Eight Palestine Action activists on hunger strike in the UK face dying in prison if Justice Secretary David Lammy fails to intervene, lawyers representing the group have warned.
Two of the activists on Wednesday reached the 46-day mark of their protest. A third is on 45 days.
It was at 46 days that Martin Hurson, 24, became the sixth of 10 prominent Irish Republican Army hunger strikers to die in 1981.
Lawyers for the activists on Tuesday sent a letter to Lammy, also the UK’s deputy prime minister, The Times reported.
He was warned that without intervention, the deaths of the eight activists is “increasingly more than a mere possibility. It is a likelihood.”
None of the activists have been convicted of a crime, and are serving lengthy periods on remand for two alleged break-ins in protest against Israeli arms companies and military sites with ties to the country.
One of the group, Qesser Zuhrah, 20, has refused food since Nov. 2. She collapsed several nights ago in prison as her legs shook uncontrollably, her lawyers said.
Zuhrah was left on the floor for hours “coming in and out of consciousness” before she was rushed to hospital, they added.
In the days before her collapse, she found it difficult to walk and suffered sharp pain in her neck, shoulders and lower abdominal region, they said.
A protest demanding an ambulance for Zuhrah was held on Tuesday night and attended by Your Party MP Zarah Sultana. The rally outside the prison descended into violence, with police arresting three protesters.
Another Palestine Action protester on hunger strike, Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 30, is suffering cognitive decline and has low red and white blood cell counts, test results quoted by her lawyers show.
One of the eight protesters who has since ended his involvement has muscular dystrophy. Another, a diabetic, is at the 13-day mark of the hunger strike.
The lawyers representing the group, from Imran Khan & Partners, said it is the “biggest coordinated prison hunger strike” in the UK since 1981. That year, 10 prisoners in Northern Ireland died after taking part in an IRA hunger strike.
The legal firm said: “All have lost a significant percentage of their body weight, and, with the hunger strike in its second month, are reaching a critical stage and nearing the point of no return.”
Despite mounting pressure from MPs, Lammy has refused to meet the activists’ lawyers.
A group of 58 MPs have signed an early day motion expressing “extreme concern” over the status of the activists.
Their families are set to hold a press conference on Thursday.
Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, said last week that Lammy’s refusal to meet MP John McDonnell over the issue was “totally unacceptable.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in Parliament this week that “there are rules and procedures in place in relation to hunger strikes, and we’re following those rules and procedures.”
The Ministry of Justice said: “We continually assess prisoners’ wellbeing and will always take the appropriate action, including taking prisoners to hospital if they are assessed as needing treatment by a medical professional.”
The alleged crimes of the eight activists took place before Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organization by the government in July.
The group are demanding immediate bail, a reversal of Palestine Action’s proscription and an end to restrictions on their communications in prison.
Imran Khan & Partners’ letter to Lammy, seen by The Times, said: “You are uniquely placed in that as a senior government minister with oversight of His Majesty’s prison service, you can bring about a resolution of the situation, such that the increasing deterioration of our clients’ health does not lead to their death.
“We are at a loss why you would not want to do this. We make clear that our request for a meeting is in an effort to seek to resolve the immediate situation and prevent the loss of life. Unless you tell us, we cannot see any reason why you would not want to engage in this process.”
