Air India Plane Crash: What We Know About Those on Board
A plane bound for the U.K. crashed shortly after take off from the city Ahmedabad with 242 people on board, the airline has said.
Air India said 169 Indian, 53 British, 1 Canadian and 7 Portuguese nationals were on board flight AI171169.
Tracking website Flightradar24 said the last signal from the aircraft were received when it was 625 feet off the ground, or "just seconds after take off."
Video on social media shows black smoke rising over a residential area in the city in west India.
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
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Video/Pic: Sole survivor walks away from plane crash that left 200+ dead in India
Air India has confirmed that one passenger survived Thursday's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner airplane crash, which had 242 passengers and crew members on board. Earlier on Thursday, Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G.S. Malik told The Associated Press, 'It appears there are no survivors in the plane crash.' Air India flight AI 171 crashed into the Meghani Nagar residential area of Ahmedabad roughly five minutes after departing for London's Gatwick Airport at approximately 1:38 p.m. (local time). According to The Associated Press, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national, was identified by a doctor at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital as the only survivor from Thursday's airplane crash. The outlet noted that Indian Home Minister Amit Shah visited the survivor in the hospital following the crash. A picture shared on social media shows Shah visiting Ramesh in the hospital. Providing an update on the survivor's condition, Dr. Dhaval Gameti told The Associated Press, 'He was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body. But he seems to be out of danger.' According to The Daily Wire, Ramesh was located near an emergency exit in seat 11A on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner at the time of the airplane crash. The outlet cited police officials who said Ramesh was able to get out of the airplane through the exit and was transported to the hospital in an ambulance. READ MORE: Video: 200+ killed in major plane crash in India A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, appears to show Ramesh walking away from the site of Thursday's airplane crash while covered in blood. 'I don't know how I am alive,' Ramesh said. 'Our plane crashed…I have no idea how I got outside.' In a statement to the Hindustan Times, Ramesh said, 'As soon as the flight took off, within 30 seconds it crashed. There was no warning from the pilot or the crew members about the crash. When I found myself alive after the crash, I saw bodies ripped apart. My leg was injured but I ran as fast as I could.' Vidhi Chaudhary, a state police officer in India, told Reuters that roughly 294 individuals were killed as a result of Thursday's airplane crash, including 'some students as the plane crashed on the building where they were staying.' According to Fox News, Air India confirmed that 241 of the 242 passengers and crew members on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner were killed in the crash and that at least 50 individuals on the ground were killed after the plane crashed into the doctors' hostel of BJ Medical College.
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The device is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings, while the voice recorder will provide cockpit conversations, said Paul Fromme, a mechanical engineer with the UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The plane that crashed was 12 years old. Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft. There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts.
