Missing Filmmaker Confirmed Dead in Ahmedabad Crash Despite Not Being on Plane or in Hostel

Mahesh Kalawadia, a local filmmaker and director of music albums, has been missing since the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Since he was in the vicinity when the plane crashed, his family is concerned that he may have perished among the casualties on land. Even though he was not one of the 242 innocent passengers on the ill-fated flight, his cell phone location was last pinged 700 meters away from the crash site; he has not been seen since then.

Mr. Kalawadia better known in the film industry as Mahesh Jirawala, his most recent residence was in Naroda, went missing shortly after the London-bound flight crashed into the premises of a medical college in Meghaninagar on June 12, news agency PTI reported. The crash took the lives of all 241 passengers and crew on board; and additionally 29 people on the ground.

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Hetal Kalawadia, his wife, stated that she received a phone call from him around 1:14 pm on the day of the crash, and that he told her the meeting he attended in the Law Garden area recently ended and he was heading home, however he did not arrive home.

"My husband called me at 1.14 pm to tell me his meeting is over and that he is on his way home. However, when he did not return, I called up on his phone but it was switched off," Hetal said.

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The family has provided DNA samples to be used for identification purposes by authorities to determine if the he was one of the victims on the ground.

She stated that police had a tracing of his last phone location to an area only 700 meters away (I think it's a typo and should read from the crash site). "His phone got switched off around 1.40 pm (a minute after the ill-fated flight took off). His scooter and mobile phone are missing. All this is unusual since he would never use that route (as per the last location) to come home," she said.

Authorities confirmed that multiple bodies from the crash site were severely burned or deformed which made identifying the victims difficult.

Authorities are using DNA testing to identify the deceased. As of Sunday, 47 victims had been identified using DNA matching.

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