Closure still eludes most of the bereaved families two days after the Air India crash as they continue their long wait for the remains of their loved ones.

With most of the bodies charred beyond recognition, they can be handed over only after DNA identification, which normally takes 72 hours from the time the DNA samples have been collected.

The death toll from the crash that killed all but one of the 242 people on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner has risen to 274. This means 33 people on the ground died when the aircraft crashed into the B.J. Medical College hostel, close to Ahmedabad airport, moments after takeoff.

A news agency has quoted Dhaval Gameti, president of the junior doctors’ association at the B.J. Medical College, as saying that 270 bodies had been brought from the crash site.

A body, believed to be that of an airhostess, was retrieved while clearing the wreckage on Saturday. A cutter had to be used to extricate it.

The black box — key to determining the cause of the accident — was recovered on Friday. Union civil aviation minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu said in New Delhi on Saturday that information from the flight data recorder was being decoded.

On Friday, the authorities had handed over the remains of five people, who could be identified without DNA tests, to their families. The DNA of 19 victims has been matched with their family members so far, a senior government doctor at the B.J. Medical College here said on Saturday.

Dr Rajnish Patel, professor of surgery at the Medical College, told media persons that the process of matching DNA has to be done meticulously. It has legal and medical implications, so one cannot rush through it, he said. Vishwas Kumar Ramesh, the sole survivor, was stable and out of danger, Dr Patel added.

On Saturday, Suresh Patni was waiting anxiously near the old post-mortem room at the Civil Hospital for the body of his 15-year-old son Akash.

The boy had come to deliver his mother Sita’s lunch at the tea stall she runs near the airport. He was taking an afternoon nap when the jet dropped from the sky.

“He was sleeping near the tea stall when a part of the plane fell on him. My wife tried to save him. She is in the ICU with severe burns and is not aware of Akash’s death,” Suresh, 47, told The Telegraph.

He said that all he wanted now was the body to be handed over without delay.

Akash’s sister Urmila wondered whether the family would receive any compensation. “We haven’t heard anything from the government,” she said.

Air India on Saturday announced a ₹25-lakh compensation for the families of the dead passengers. This is in addition to the ₹1-crore compensation announced earlier by Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group that owns Air India.

The Gujarat branch of the Indian Medical Association has written to the Tata Sons chairman requesting assistance for the families of the doctors killed on the ground in the crash, as well as those injured.

Less than half a kilometre from the medical college hostel, a resident, Shilpa Patni, shuddered as she recalled what she saw.

“After lunch, we were sitting in a room. We suddenly heard an unusual noise — sort of a blast. We opened a window and saw that the airplane had hit the hostel,” she said.

They feared the impact might damage their home, too. “I just threw on a dupatta (over the casual clothes she was wearing)…. We all ran out with our children to save our lives,” Shilpa said.

At the Civil Hospital, 192 vehicles were on standby to carry the bodies to their native places. The coffins had been made in Vadodara.

Rushabh, son of former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani who died in the crash, arrived in Ahmedabad from the US on Saturday morning. Preparations have begun for Rupani’s last rites in Rajkot.

Investigation by different teams, including a forensic squad, continued at the crash site on Saturday.