Ahmedabad, Jan 19 (PTI) Seven months after the horrific Ahmedabad air crash that killed 260 persons, Air India has started the process of returning personal belongings to the affected families, a spokesperson for the airline said on Monday.

On June 12 last year, Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 aircraft enroute to London Gatwick, crashed into a medical college hostel complex shortly after take off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The aircraft burst into flames, killing 241 out of 242 people onboard and 19 individuals on the ground.

"Air India is handling this process of returning personal belongings to the kin of the victims with utmost respect, dignity, and accuracy. Working closely with a qualified external partner, our teams have spent considerable time cataloguing and documenting recoverable and returnable items," the spokesperson said.

Over 22,000 personal belongings have been preserved and listed on a dedicated portal with meticulous care, including nearly 8,000 'associated items', such as passports or any document that can be linked with a particular person, and 14,000 'un-associated items' that cannot be linked in this manner, the spokesperson added.

He said information about these items has been shared with families through email and a dedicated website, and once families confirm the details, the belongings will be handed over physically in a manner that honours their grief and privacy.

For 'associated items', mails have been sent to the concerned families with the photograph and details of that recovered item. The family will have three options - either they opt not to take possession, or collect it in-person from a facilitation centre in Ahmedabad or ask Air India to send the item through courier, the spokesperson said.

The process has already begun from January 5 and it will continue till mid-February, he said, adding that several persons have already visited the facilitation centre and collected the items which belonged to their kin. The process has been carried out after taking appropriate regulatory clearances, he added.

For the 14,000-odd 'un-associated items', whose ownership was difficult to establish, Air India has created a dedicated web portal.

"This web portal contains all the 14,000 items. They are visible to the family members of all the crash victims with whom we have shared the link via email. This is not open to the public. If a family thinks a particular item belonged to their kin, they can claim it by pressing a button," said the spokesperson.

These items will be either handed over in-person at Ahmedabad or sent through courier as per the wishes of the families, he added.

Personal belongings on display include a toy airplane, a toy car, wrist watch, plastic bangles, a sweater, a pair of shoes, a half-burnt page of a book having famous Gujarati prayer "Mangal Mandir Kholo" and hand bags, among others, said a man who received the link from Air India to identify the belongings of his mother who died in the crash.

"I have gone through the portal. Belongings of our loved ones hold a special place in our heart and we always want to preserve those things. I went through all the listed items but did not find anything which belonged to my mother, maybe because she was not carrying much luggage on that day," said the man. PTI PJT PD BNM