Of all the horrific images from the AI171 crash, perhaps the most heartbreaking is that of a desperate Sita Patni struggling with her bulky frame as she runs to seek help for her son.

The 38-year-old tea seller is seen scurrying about frantically to find help for Akash, 15, who has been hit by a burning fragment from the plane, as other people and vehicles move away from the site.

Even on the fourth day after the tragedy, a hospitalised Sita does not know that her son is dead. She has been told that Akash is in another ward.

Sita is in the ICU with severe burns. Her husband, Suresh, hasn’t gone home since arriving at the hospital shortly after the crash. His tears have now dried and he speaks less and less.

Suresh was expecting a call from the authorities around noon on Sunday telling him that his son’s body was ready for release. By evening, he was still waiting.

The victims all perished within seconds, but the handover of their bodies is taking days.

Till evening on Sunday, 47 DNA samples had been matched and 35 bodies handed over to families, said Dr Rajnish Patel, additional superintendent of the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

H.P. Sanghavi, director of the forensic science laboratory, said the sampling and matching of DNA was going on 24x7.

Sanghavi explained that while taking blood samples from a family member was easy, extracting DNA from a victim’s body was a difficult task requiring precision.

Sanghavi said a body is handed over only when 23 DNA alleles match. (An allele is one of several alternative forms of a particular gene.)

Suresh has been wearing the same set of clothes since the day of the crash. “Where will I go? I have not got my son,” he told The Telegraph.

It’s just one of the heart-rending ironies of life: Sunday happens to be Father’s Day.

Suresh sleeps near the old postmortem room. Giving him company are a large number of people from his community.

“Suresh Bhai hasn’t eaten anything. It’s with great difficulty that we make him drink water, tea or some juice so that he imbibes energy,” Sarlaben Patni, a distant relative, said.

At his home in New Laxminagar, Shahibaug, family members had been waiting for Akash’s body since Sunday morning. Rose petals have been strewn on a bed and a garland is ready. As are clothes and a pair of shoes for his last journey.

Akash was the youngest of four siblings. “We want to see our Akash’s face; we will never be able to see him again,” sister Urmila said, not realising that the family would probably not be able to open the coffin.

Told about this, she said: “If that is the case, we will put the shoes and clothes by his side. We will also throw balls in the air when we take him out one last time.”

Akash was a keen cricketer.

Kajal, the eldest among the siblings, hoped the body would be released at the earliest. “Father has taken a vow that he won’t eat till he sees Akash,” she said.

Akash, who had arrived at the tea stall to hand over Sita’s lunch, was taking a nap under a nearby tree when burning debris from the aircraft dropped on him.

The Patnis haven’t earned anything for the last four days. Suresh and one of his sons, Kalpesh, are auto-rickshaw drivers.

Many of the other bereaved families are grieving at home, waiting for the call to come and pick up their loved ones.

Dabu Patni, mourns as she waits for the body of her younger brother Akash Patni, 14, who died after an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane crashed during take-off from an airport, to arrive at his house for the last rites in Ahmedabad, India, June 15, 2025.

As the doctors and paramedics work round the clock for the dead and the injured, and families wait at the hospital, RSS workers have been silently managing traffic and handing out food and water.

At any point of time there are an estimated 200 Sangh workers at the hospital. They work in shifts and have been present since the day of the crash. Bajrang Dal volunteers too have pitched in.

All the five hostels of the B.J. Medical College, where the plane crashed, have been evacuated and teams are clearing the debris and looking for clues. A Boeing team has joined the investigation.

The central government had said on Saturday that information from the flight data recorder was being decoded.

So far, what is known is that the pilot had given a May Day signal before falling silent.

“Thrust not achieved. Falling. May Day, May Day, May Day,” are believed to have been his last words.

The DNA samples of former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani have matched and his last rites are expected to be held in Rajkot on Monday.