AHMEDABAD: The Ahmedabad plane crash that shocked the country happened last Thursday. 274 including 229 passengers, 12 crew members and people in the hostel building, have died in the accident. One survived miraculously. While relatives are waiting to provide DNA samples to identify the bodies of the passengers in the plane crash, it is reported that many of the locals are missing after the accident.

Some who were near B J Medical College at the time of the accident have not yet returned to their homes. Relatives have come forward stating that a film producer has been missing since Thursday. They have submitted DNA samples. The producer was reportedly in the area at the time of the accident. Relatives said that his phone location was last found 700 meters away from the crash site. They suspect that he may have died in the accident. The missing is Mahesh Jirawala also known as Mahesh Kalawadia. He lived in Naroda. His wife Hetal said that Mahesh had gone to meet someone in the area where the accident occurred in connection with the production of a music album.

‘He called me at 1.14 pm and told me that his meeting was over and was returning home. However, when he did not return, she called on his phone but it was switched off. A complaint was then filed with the police. The last location of his phone was shown 700 meters away from the accident. The phone was switched off around 1.40 pm. His scooter or phone are missing. DNA samples have been given,’ said Hetal.

Meantime, while intensive efforts are being made to identify those dead in the tragedy as soon as possible and hand over the body parts to the relatives, DNA testing is becoming complicated. The discovery of two heads in the bag where one body parts were buried has become a challenge. DNA testing will have to be done again to identify who the two body parts belong to. This may take at least 72 hours. A senior official at the civil hospital said that the DNA sampling process will have to be repeated as the body parts of two victims of the tragedy should not have been in the same bag.

Body bags for DNA testing are kept outside the postmortem room of the civil hospital. Authorities said that it is not certain that all the parts of the victims will be recovered as they were burnt. However, relatives of the dead are waiting outside the hospital, begging for their bodies to be handed over for the last rites. Authorities say that although it is a painful scene, nothing can be done.