Air India plane crash: At hospital, families look out for each other as wait continues

Among them is Abdullah Nanabawa, whose son Akeel, daughter-in-law Hannaa Vorajee and four-year-old granddaughter Sara were on the flight. Surat-based Nanabawa has been waiting at the Kasauti Bhavan, along with a group of family and friends, since they reached Ahmedabad on Thursday evening after learning about the crash. Akeel, Hannaa and Sara, all three British nationals, had come to Surat to surprise their family on Eid.

Nanabawa tells a relative on the phone that he will return only when he has something to take back home. Other family members and friends have taken up an accomodation near the airport, waiting from sunrise till late at night at the hospital.

There are many others like them at the hospital, mostly waiting silently, and sometimes exchanging updates, discussing arrangements for ambulances and last rites with each other or on the phone with families back home.

Many of them are seen taking care of each other, asking if they have eaten, ordering tea, as the sound of airplanes flying over the hospital every few minutes fills the air with an eerie silence.

The district authorities have also appointed a point person for each of the families for grief counselling and helping with queries and last rites arrangements.

“Usually, after a death, family members assemble to perform last rites. Here, some are waiting for bodies at the hospital, while others wait at home for them to return, so it has been challenging. We have tried to expedite identification process,” says an official.

Not far from the Nanabawa family sits Anil Patel, a security supervisor, who is grieving the loss of his son Harshit and daughter-in-law Pooja, both of whom had come from Leicester. Patel was informed Thursday night around 9 pm that he will be called once the DNA test results come in after 72 hours. Still, he comes to the hospital every morning.

His friend and colleague Rajesh Vaghela said he took Patel home on Thursday night after he had given his blood sample. “After midnight, he called me and said he wanted to go back to the hospital. I told him we have to wait for 72 hours but he wanted to be at the place where his son’s remains were. I convinced him somehow that I’ll take him to the hospital the next day,” Vaghela tells The Indian Express.

On Saturday and again on Sunday, Patel was back at the hospital around 9 am, sitting and waiting. “What do I do? I do not feel good at home,” he says, wiping tears.

Having lost his wife to cancer six years ago, Patel lives alone, not far from the hospital. His daughter, who lives in another locality with her family and other relatives are around, but Patel insists on being present at the hospital when the bodies are handed over.

By Saturday night, some families began receiving calls about the identification process being completed. They were told to come to the hospital on Sunday.

Patel received a call that the DNA match of his son was done, but his daughter-in-law’s identification was awaited. “We asked for both bodies to be handed over together so we can cremate them together,” Patel says. After waiting on Sunday, Patel in the evening was told to come back Monday.