Air India Plane Crash Draws Attention to Flaps and Landing Gear
Video of the Air India jetliner that crashed into a neighborhood points to potential anomalies that aviation safety authorities will examine to understand what caused the accident that killed at least 241 people.
The Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner appeared to not achieve sufficient thrust as it lumbered down nearly the full length of an 11,000-foot runway, a distance that should have been more than enough to take off, said Bob Mann, head of aviation consultant RW Mann & Co.
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42 minutes ago
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Air India crash: Officials hand over bodies for last rites
Relatives of the people who died in the Air India crash begun receiving bodies of their loved ones in white coffins on Sunday, with some families readying for performing the last rites. Relatives of the victims provided DNA samples that were matched with the bodies. Witnesses at the crash site said the bodies were badly burnt and dismembered. A victim's relative told AFP news agency they had been advised not to open the coffins. "My heart is very heavy, how do we give the bodies to the families?" NGO worker Tushar Leuva told AFP news agency. Dr. Rajnish Patel from the Civil Hospital said 31 bodies have been identified so far through DNA matches. "12 bodies have been handed over to their respective family members. We are waiting for others to come and collect the remains of their relatives," he told India's ANI news agency. The cause of the crash is not yet clear, as investigations are underway. The black box or flight data recorder has been recovered, and authorities expect findings to be available soon. Officials told NDTV news channel that the flight had undergone comprehensive maintenance checks in June 2023, and the next round of checks would have been due in December this year. Air India said the flight was carrying 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, 7 Portuguese and one Canadian, plus 12 crew members. The deadly crash killed 241 on board and left only one survivor. More than 30 were killed on the ground as the flight rammed into a medical student hostel. Most of those who were injured have been discharged, but one or two remain in critical condition. The flight issued a mayday call just moments before it crashed around 1:38 p.m. local time (0808 GMT). India's Aviation Authority also said on Saturday that the plane began to descend after reaching 650 feet (almost 200 meters) Edited by: Roshni Majumdar
Yahoo
4 hours ago
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Families hold funerals for Air India crash victims
Grieving families were due to hold funerals in India on Sunday for their relatives who were among at least 279 killed in one of the world's worst plane crashes in decades. Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing, delivering them in white coffins in the western city of Ahmedabad. "My heart is very heavy, how do we give the bodies to the families?" said Tushar Leuva, an NGO worker who has been helping with the recovery efforts. There was just one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the Air India jet when it crashed Thursday into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground. "How will they react when they open the gate? But we'll have to do it," Leuva told AFP at the mortuary on Saturday. One victim's relative who did not want to be named told AFP they had been instructed not to open the coffin when they receive it. Witnesses reported seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it went down moments after takeoff, smashing into buildings used by medical staff. Mourning relatives have been providing DNA samples to be matched with passengers, with 31 identified as of Sunday morning. "This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only," Rajnish Patel, a doctor at Ahmedabad's civil hospital, said late Saturday. The majority of those injured on the ground have been discharged, he added, with one or two remaining in critical care. - Girls orphaned by crash - Indian authorities are yet to detail the cause of the disaster and have ordered inspections of Air India's Dreamliners. Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday he hoped decoding the recovered black box, or flight data recorder, would "give an in-depth insight" into what went wrong. Just one person miraculously escaped the wreckage, British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, whose brother was also on the flight. Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members. Among the passengers was a father of two young girls, Arjun Patoliya, who had travelled to India to scatter his wife's ashes following her death weeks earlier. "I really hope that those girls will be looked after by all of us," said Anjana Patel, the mayor of London's Harrow borough where some of the victims lived. "We don't have any words to describe how the families and friends must be feeling," she added. While communities were in mourning, one woman recounted how she survived only by arriving late at the airport. "The airline staff had already closed the check-in," said 28-year-old Bhoomi Chauhan. "At that moment, I kept thinking that if only we had left a little earlier, we wouldn't have missed our flight," she told the Press Trust of India news agency. bur-rsc/mtp
10 hours ago
Sole survivor of Air India crash describes failed takeoff and disbelief at being alive
NEW DELHI -- The lone passenger who survived an Air India crash couldn't believe he was alive when he opened his eyes and was surrounded by flames, debris and charred bodies. Viswashkumar Ramesh, a British national of Indian origin, was on the flight headed to London that crashed minutes after taking off from India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon. The accident killed 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground. Recovery teams working until late Friday found at least 25 more bodies in the debris, officials said. 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. Ramesh narrated his ordeal to India's national broadcaster from a local government hospital, saying the aircraft felt like it became stuck in midair within a few seconds of takeoff. Green and white lights flashed and the aircraft accelerated but seemed unable to gain height before the plane struck a medical college hostel in a residential area. He saw several passengers and crew members lose their lives. His brother was one of those who perished on board. Seated in 11A, Ramesh said his side of the plane landed on the ground floor of a building. He unfastened his seat belt and forced himself out through an open door. 'When I opened my eyes, I realized I was alive,' said Ramesh, who recalled parts of the plane strewn around the crash site. Ramesh sustained burn injuries on his left hand and walked some distance in shock before he was assisted by local residents and taken by ambulance to a hospital. Another brother told Sky News that Ramesh called his father moments after the crash to say he had survived but wasn't aware of what happened to his brother who was on the flight with him. '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,'' Nayan Kumar Ramesh said. Ramesh's cousin, Ajay Valgi, told the BBC that Ramesh called relatives in Leicester, England, after the crash. 'He only said that he's fine, nothing else,' said Valgi, adding that Ramesh has a wife and a 'little boy' at home. The family is 'happy that he's OK, but we're still upset about the other brother.' Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who went to the crash site Friday, also visited the lone survivor in the hospital. 'I told Modi what all I had witnessed. He also enquired about my health,' Ramesh said from his bed. Dr. Dhaval Gameti said Ramesh, who kept his boarding pass with him in the hospital, was disoriented with multiple injuries over his body but seemed to be out of danger as the medical staff continued to monitor him. 'He is doing very well and will be ready to be discharged anytime soon,' Gameti said Saturday.
