Just days after being discharged from hospital, the sole survivor of the Air India plane crash has farewelled his brother, who died in the disaster.
With bandages still on his face, Viswashkumar Ramesh helped carry his brother Ajay's coffin through the town of Diu on India's west coast on Wednesday, local time.
He was clearly distressed and consoled by family members.
Mourners packed the streets to farewell the English businessman's brother, who was sitting just a few rows from him six days ago when flight AI171 bound for London crashed in the suburbs of Ahmedabad.
All of the other 241 other passengers died, along with at least 30 people on the ground and five medical students.
Mr Ramesh remarkably survived the horror, managing to walk to find medical help.
Other funeral services for victims took place across the country, but some families were still waiting for the relatives to be returned to them.
Distraught relatives have been providing DNA samples to help identify their loved ones, in a painstakingly slow process.
As of Wednesday, the medical superintendent of the Civil Hospital, Rakesh Joshi, told journalists that 208 victims had been identified.
Plane had no record of engine problems
The funerals took place as Air India's chairman confirmed that the crashed Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had no record of engine problems.
In an interview with Indian broadcaster Times Now, Natarajan Chandrasekaran said Air India flight 171's right engine was new and installed in March 2025, and that the left engine was last serviced in 2023.
Experts from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are probing the crash with assistance from the UK, the US and officials from Boeing.
A definitive cause could take several months or even years to determine.
Following the crash, India's aviation safety regulator has ordered deeper checks on the Boeing 787 aircraft operated by Air India.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that Air India had cancelled 83 wide-body flights, including 66 Dreamliners since the new checks were imposed.
However, it said no "major safety concerns" had been found.
Air India's response
Air India said it would cut international wide-body aircraft flights by 15 per cent for the next few weeks.
It cited additional safety checks and operational disruption as reasons for the move.
The airline said in a statement that inspections had been completed on 26 of its 33 Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft, and those 26 have been cleared for service.
The cuts, effective until at least mid-July, were being implemented "to ensure stability of operations, better efficiency and minimise inconvenience to passengers," the Tata Group-owned airline said.
The remaining planes will be checked in the coming days, and additional checks are also planned for its Boeing 777 fleet, Air India added.
Air India Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said the flight that crashed had a clean engine history.
In an interview with Indian broadcaster Times Now, he said Air India flight 171's right engine was new and installed in March 2025, and that the left engine was last serviced in 2023.
ABC/wires
