- Raju Patel and his friends assisted in recovery efforts after the AI171 plane crash in Ahmedabad.
- Patel's group recovered valuables, including gold, passports, and cash, from the debris.
- The crash resulted in 274 deaths, with only one survivor identified as a British national.
While police, disaster response workers and local authorities scoured the debris in Ahmedabad hoping to find survivors after the AI171 plane crash, Raju Patel and his friends launched another operation of their own - to recover personal belongings of the victims.
Mr Patel, a builder, and his friends plunged into action the moment they heard about the Air India Ahmedabad-London flight crashing into the medical hostel and ending up in flames. "I had come home for lunch when I learnt about the crash. We took an ambulance from the nearest hospital and reached the crash site," he told NDTV.
Mr Patel and his friends helped the rescuers and other personnel retrieve bodies from the charred and still burning wreckage. After a few hours, they started collecting valuables and belongings they found in the mangled remains of the Dreamliner. They found around 800 grams of gold, mobile phones, passports, idols and clothes of God, a Bhagavad Gita and cash.
They borrowed bags from rescuers and locals on the site to store the valuables and handed them over to the authorities.
As of Wednesday, at least 202 victims have been identified through DNA testing, while 157 bodies have been handed over to families.
The plane crash resulted in 274 deaths - 241 on the aircraft and the rest on the ground. Only one person on the doomed aircraft, a British national, miraculously survived. Following the June 13 crash, tragic visuals emerged including that of an eight-month-old child in line to give a sample for DNA testing. Another video showed students and staff jumping out of the medical college building where the plane had crashed.
The crash brought Air India's Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet, known for its immaculate safety record, under scrutiny with 66 flights of the series being cancelled between June 12 and 17 due to technical snags and other reasons. But in the latest review on Tuesday, aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that 24 of the 33 Boeing 787 Dreamliners with Air India are compliant with safety standards.
