Families of the victims who succumbed following the Ethiopia Airlines crash will have to wait for at least five days to begin receiving the remains of their kins.
In a statement issued by on Tuesday, the company noted that the identification of others might take even longer.
Ethiopian Airlines spokesman Asrat Begashawt told reporters in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, “The process of identifying the victims will take at least five days.”
However, due to the impact and the ensuing fire, the identification of some remains could take weeks or months and may need to be done via dental records on DNA.
According to an industry expert who spoke to Reuters, the process of identification will be complicated because the passengers came from more than 30 countries and Ethiopia has limited forensic capabilities.
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Expressing his distress, Noordin Mohamed, a 27-year old Kenyan businessman stated that his family had no information about when they are likely to busy his brother and mother.
“We are Muslim and have to bury our deceased immediately. Now we cannot even recover any bodies. Losing a brother and mother in the same day and not having their bodies to bury is very painful,” he lamented.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed on Sunday just six-minutes after take-off from the Ethiopian capital, killing 157 people.
The plane’s black box recorders were recovered on Monday and are being looked at to help piece together the plane’s last moments.
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