ISLAMABAD: Heavy rain on Thursday hampered rescue operations at the site of Wednesday’s plane crash over Margalla Hills as rescuers managed to retrieve body parts of only 18 more victims. They were unable to recover the black box of the airliner.

Relatives and family members of the victims continued to face hardships in getting bodies because of a complicated process of identification.

There was uncertainty among heirs that whatever they were receiving in coffins were original bodies of their loved-ones or parts of different bodies collected from the site of the tragedy.

According to rescue teams, only 12 complete bodies had been found so far. The rest of the bodies are said to have been badly mutilated, burnt and scattered over the hills.

Although rain hampered efforts to retrieve bodies on Thursday, 18 bodies or human organs were retrieved from the scene of the biggest plane crash in the country’s history.

“The operation, which was slowed down by heavy rain, will continue for another four or five days, but we have retrieved almost all bodies from the site,” said CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, who is supervising the joint operation by CDA, army, air force, NDMA, the local administration and volunteers.

Bin Yameen, deputy inspector-general of Islamabad police, said the operation to recover remains of the victims could not be resumed because of heavy rain and difficulty in reaching the place.

“We are waiting for the rain to stop. In such weather, neither helicopters can fly nor rescue workers move up easily. We may give it a try, but it seems very difficult to carry out such an operation in this difficult terrain,” he said.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the Senate on Thursday that 78 bodies had been identified and 66 of them had been handed over to heirs.

He said he had ordered authorities concerned to expedite the process of identification through DNA.

UNCERTAINTY AND AGONY
Heated arguments were heard at a private cold storage centre in Sector I-10/3 where bodies of the victims were placed after restructuring in a hospital. Relatives gathered in the cold storage to identify bodies.

“I could not find the body of my brother and will not go back home without taking his body,” said Ms Hina, the sister of the crash victim.

Some of the people said they were not sure about what they were taking with them.

“We don’t know whether we are taking the original body of our relatives because these are not complete bodies, but human organs colleted from the scene of plan crash,” an old man Muhammad Hafeez said.

A group of 140 relatives of the victims arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday night and underwent a DNA test or blood sampling process at the Aabpara community centre.

According to Interior Minister Rehman Maik, the DNA test of the deceased had already been carried out.

BLACK BOX
Sources in the Civil Aviation Authority said that the black box of the Airbus A-321 had not been found.

CDA chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi and Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Amir Ali Ahmed both expressed their ignorance about the black box.

“I don’t know whether it has been recovered or not because our rescue team was only dealing with the recovery of bodies, while some other authorities are searching for the black box,” the CDA chairman said.

Sources in CAA said that the Control Tower of the airport had been sealed off and radio traffic between the plane and the tower was being examined.

Courtesy by dawn.com