AHMEDABAD, India, June  18, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - More than 200 victims of last 
week's Air India jet crash have been identified through DNA testing, a hospital 
official 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 Wednesday, 208 victims had been identified, the civil hospital's 
medical superintendent Rakesh Joshi told journalists.
       
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. 
       
Air India said Wednesday it would also carry out "enhanced safety checks on 
its Boeing 777 fleet", in a note announcing a decision to cut its international 
flights on widebody planes by 15 percent until mid-July.
       
Routes affected include those flown by the Boeing 787-8 and 777 models. The 
move follows 83 cancellations since the crash, due to "compounding 
circumstances", according to Air India.
       
"Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, night curfew in the airspaces of 
many countries in Europe and East Asia, the ongoing enhanced safety 
inspections, and also the necessary cautious approach being taken by the 
engineering staff and Air India pilots," have led to the spate of scrapped 
flights, the airline said.
       
Initial checks on Air India's fleet "did not reveal any major safety 
concerns", the civil aviation regulator said late Tuesday.
       
"The aircraft and associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant 
with existing safety standards," it said.