New Delhi: The National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) in Gujarat has the difficult task of performing DNA segregation and matches for bodies of the deceased in the Air India plane crash, and their family members.
The process includes sample collection, DNA extraction and preservation, DNA profiling, segregation and matches.
Officials privy to the matter said the extraction process will be challenging as some bodies are completely charred and extracting bone samples will take time.
A senior official at NFSU told ThePrint that by late Friday, they are hoping to complete the process for at least 150 victims of Air India flight 171 that was travelling from Ahmedabad to London Thursday, but crashed within minutes of take off with the pilot giving a Mayday call to the Air Traffic Control.
Of the 242 people on board, only one survived the crash and resultant fireball.
“Under usual circumstances, the extraction process and profiling take barely 30-40 minutes. However, here the extraction will take time, as there will hardly be any bone left on some of the charred bodies. It is challenging to find bone samples from the ashes. In some cases, nearly two-thirds of the body is burnt. Thus, the process has to be repeated three-four times,” Dr S.O. Junare, NFSU Gandhinagar campus director, told ThePrint.
Bones, teeth and other matter will be collected from the bodies by doctors and forensic teams on the ground and then sent for DNA profiling. Blood samples of relatives will be processed at the NFSU campus in Ahmedabad and then sent to NFSU’s state-of-the-art facility in Gandhinagar, where the samples will be matched with the DNA collected from the bodies.
“Till this morning, 200 samples have been collected from relatives. As many as 210 samples have also been collected from the bodies and profiling has been done. All hands on deck for this,” a second official said.
So far, six bodies of the crash victims have been handed over to their families after DNA matches were made.
Officials said the process of segregation is crucial. “We are segregating the victims’ samples—crew members, pilots, passengers from India and those of other nationalities, to avoid any mismatch. This is an extremely important step,” the second official said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)