AHMEDABAD, India, June 18, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - More than 200 victims of the Air 
India jet crash have been identified through DNA testing, Indian authorities 
said Wednesday, inching towards ending an agonising wait for relatives. 

There was one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the London-
bound plane on Thursday when it slammed into a residential area of Ahmedabad, 
killing at least 38 people on the ground. 

Distraught relatives have been providing DNA samples to help identify their 
loved ones, in a painstakingly slow process. 

"As of 2 pm, 202 DNA (samples) have been matched," Harsh Sanghavi, home 
minister of Ahmedabad's Gujarat state, wrote on X.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it crashed moments 
after takeoff, with witnesses reporting seeing badly burnt bodies and 
scattered remains.

Indian authorities are yet to announce the cause of the crash and 
investigators from Britain and the United States have joined the probe.

Investigators are aiming to retrieve vital information from both black boxes 
recovered from the site -- the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data 
recorder.

India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau upgraded a laboratory this 
year where black boxes can be analysed.

Following the crash, the civil aviation regulator ordered inspections of Air 
India's Dreamliners. 

Initial checks on the fleet "did not reveal any major safety concerns", the 
regulator said late Tuesday.

"The aircraft and associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant 
with existing safety standards," it said.