In pictures: Passenger plane crashes in India
More than 200 people are feared dead after a passenger plane crashed into a residential area shortly after taking off from the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday.
The Air India flight was bound for London. There were 242 passengers and crew members aboard.
The aircraft's signal was lost less than a minute after takeoff, at an altitude of 625 feet, according to FlightRadar24 data. The plane then started to descend with a vertical speed of -475 feet per minute, the data showed.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the plane crash had 'stunned and saddened' the country. He described the incident as 'heartbreaking beyond words,' adding that he was in touch with the authorities involved in the disaster.
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Associated Press
16 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Air India's sole crash survivor narrates his escape
NEW DELHI (AP) — The lone passenger who survived the Air India crash that killed 241 people onboard couldn't believe he was alive when he opened his eyes, surrounded by flames, debris and charred bodies. The British national of Indian origin, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, was headed to London when the flight crashed minutes after taking off from India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon. It was one of India's worst aviation disasters and the first crash for a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner since the widebody, twin-engine planes went into service in 2009, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. Currently admitted in a local government hospital, Ramesh narrated his ordeal to India's national broadcaster, saying the aircraft seemed stuck midair within a few seconds of the takeoff. He said green and white lights came on, and right after that, the aircraft accelerated but seemed unable to gain height before it crashed. Seated in 11A, Ramesh said his side of the plane fell onto the ground floor of a building, and there was space for him to escape after the door broke open. He unfastened his seat belt and forced himself out of the plane. 'When I opened my eyes, I realized I was alive,' he said. Ramesh sustained burn injuries on his left hand and walked some distance in shock before he was assisted by the locals and taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the crash side on Friday, met the lone survivor. 'I told Modi what all I had witnessed. He also enquired about my health,' Ramesh said from his hospital bed. Dr. Dhaval Gameti, who treated him, said he was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body but seems to be out of danger. Ramesh, who had his boarding pass with him in the hospital, said he saw several passengers and crew members losing their lives and parts of the plane strewn around the crash site. Ramesh was traveling with his brother and called relatives in Leicester after the crash, his cousin, Ajay Valgi, told the BBC. He has a wife and 'little boy' at home. 'He only said that he's fine, nothing else,' Valgi said, adding that the family is 'happy that he's OK, but we're still upset about the other brother.' Ramesh's brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh ,told Sky News that his brother called his father moments after the crash to say he had survived. 'He video called my dad as he crashed and said, 'Oh the plane's crashed. I don't know where my brother is. I don't see any other passengers. I don't know how I'm alive, how I exited the plane',' he told Sky.
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Lunch plates abandoned, plane parts embedded in walls after Air India jet hit doctors' hostel
By Sudipto Ganguly and Abhijith Ganapavaram AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) -Lunch break at a doctors' hostel in India's Ahmedabad turned fatal for many in the dining area when parts of an Air India aircraft crashed through its roof as the plane hurtled to the ground moments after takeoff, killing more than 240 people. Only one passenger survived the crash of the London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner jet on Thursday, the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. As many as 24 people on the ground were also killed, according to local media. A day later, Thakur Ravi, who worked in the kitchen at the B.J. Medical College hostel, is still searching for his mother - a cook there - and his two-year-old daughter, who he left under her care. The last time he saw them was before he set off to deliver lunch boxes to senior doctors at the hospital, about half an hour before the crash. "All the other ladies who cook food at the hostel managed to escape, but my mother and daughter got left inside ... I have searched everywhere but have not found them," he told reporters on Friday. At least four undergraduate students and five relatives of students were killed in the crash, a resident doctor, who is part of the junior doctors' association at the college, told Reuters on the condition of anonymity. Images of the dining area shortly after the incident showed wheels and other parts of the aircraft embedded in the walls, while debris and belongings of the students, including clothes and books, lay scattered on the floor. Steel tumblers and plates still containing some food lay on the few tables that were left intact, with a section of the aircraft that was partially wedged on top of the damaged building giving an indication of the devastation inside. A strong stench of jet fuel hung in the air at the site on Friday, as authorities used cranes to remove charred trees and debris, while a portion of the wall of the top floor of the hostel lay on the ground. Loud wails could be heard at the home of Akash, a resident of Ahmedabad who was charred to death as he rushed to save his mother who ran a tea stall near the hostel and was caught in the blaze of the crash but managed to escape. "Her son ran in to save her but got blinded by the smoke completely burnt. He died in front of our eyes," Akash's aunt, Jasi, told Reuters, adding that his mother sustained burn injuries and was undergoing treatment. (Writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by YP Rajesh and Philippa Fletcher)
New York Post
26 minutes ago
- New York Post
Air India survivor escaped through emergency door — while brother just seats away among more than 240 killed
The sole survivor of the Air India plane crash escaped the fiery wreckage through an emergency exit door, he said — while one of his brothers was among the more than 240 killed, despite being just seats away. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, was filmed limping on the streets of Ahmedabad in a blood-stained T-shirt with bruises on his face after the Boeing 787 crashed and exploded into a fireball into a residential neighborhood. He miraculously made it out without any serious injuries, doctors said. Advertisement 'The side of the plane I was in landed on the ground, and I could see that there was space outside the aircraft, so when my door broke I tried to escape through it and I did,' the 40-year-old British national told Indian state broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed on Friday. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Ramesh on Friday. NARENDRA MODI YOUTUBE CHANNEL/AFP via Getty Images 'I don't believe how I survived. For some time I thought I was also going to die,' 'I don't believe how I survived. For some time I thought I was also going to die,' he said. Advertisement 'But when I opened my eyes, I realised I was alive and I tried to unbuckle myself from the seat and escape from where I could. It was in front of my eyes that the air hostess and others (died).' Vishwash Kumar Ramesh was filmed walking around largely unscathed after the plane crash. NEWS18 GUJARATI Viswash was seated in 11A by the exit door — while one of his brothers, Ajaykumar Ramesh, was on the other side of the aisle in seat 11J. The brother was among the 229 other passengers and 12 crew members when the plane crashed and hit a doctors' hostel. Viswash has been pleading 'Find Ajay, you must find Ajay,' as he recovers from his injuries in the hospital, family members told The Daily Mail. Advertisement 'It's a miracle at least one of them survived,' younger brother Nayankumar Ramesh, 27, told the paper from the family's home in Leicester, where they've gathered to grieve. 'He said his plane had crashed and he couldn't find anyone, we couldn't believe it. There was blood running down his face,' he said, adding they plan on flying out to see him on Friday. After learning about Viswash's remarkable survival, they waited hours for updates on Ajaykumar. However Air India later confirmed that 241 of the 242 people aboard had perished — dashing their hopes to see the 35-year-old alive again. Viswash and Ajaykumar were in India on a business trip, Nayan told the Daily Mail. Advertisement Viswash was formerly the sole director of textile company RMV Fashion, which shut down in 2022, he said. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in his home state of Gujarat to visit the crash site, also met Viswash in the hospital on Friday. Doctors told local media that he did not sustain any major injuries. The plane went down around 1:30 p.m. local time on Thursday in Ahmedabad, a city of about 5 million people in northwest India, just seconds after takeoff. It was the worst aviation disaster in the last ten years. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. With Post Wires
