More than 240 killed in Air India crash, one survivor in hospital
More than 240 people were killed when an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London crashed minutes after takeoff from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Thursday (June 12), authorities said, in the world's worst airline disaster in a decade.
The plane came down in a residential area, crashing into a medical college hostel during lunch hour.
The airline confirmed that all but one of the 242 people on board had died.
The sole survivor is being treated in a hospital, the carrier said.
Ramesh Viswashkumar, 40, a British national who was in India for a few days to visit his family, told the Hindustan Times from his hospital bed: 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed'. 'It all happened so quickly,' he said. 'When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran.'
Ramesh, who was assigned seat 11A near the emergency exit, is reported to have jumped from the plane. 'There were pieces of the plane all around me,' he added. 'Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.'
Ramesh, who suffered injuries on his chest, eyes and feet, spoke about his brother Ajay, who was seated in a different row on the plane. 'He was travelling with me and I can't find him anymore. Please help me find him,' he said.
A top police officer said they were still verifying the number of dead, including those killed in the building where the plane crashed. Forty-one people were being treated in hospital, said the Ahmedabad police commissioner. See also Netherlands' Geert Wilders reminding Europeans of the 1930s?
Another police officer revised down earlier reports of 294 dead, explaining some bodies had been double-counted.
The official death toll will be announced after DNA verification, said Indian Home Minister Amit Shah.
Parts of the plane's body were scattered around the building it hit. The aircraft's tail was stuck on top of the building.
Flight AI171 to London's Gatwick airport was carrying 12 crew members and 230 passengers, most of whom were Indian and British nationals,
The passengers on board included 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian, Air India said.
Air India, previously a state-owned airline, was taken over by the Indian conglomerate Tata Group in 2022 and merged with Vistara — a joint venture between the group and Singapore Airlines — in 2024. Problems reported on aircraft
A man claimed he flew from Delhi to Ahmedabad on the same aircraft hours before it crashed while taking off for London.
Akash Vatsa, an entrepreneur, tweeted on X: 'I was in the same d*** flight 2 hours before it took off from AMD. I came in this from DEL-AMD. Noticed unusual things in the place. Made a video to tweet to @airindia. I would want to give more details.'
Vatsa uploaded videos from inside the aircraft, highlighting problems with the air-conditioning and the in-flight entertainment system. 'We are almost about to taxi. But the AC is not working. Look at everyone. AC is not working at all. And as usual, the TV screens are not working,' he said in a video, reported Mint.
Aviation tracking site Flightradar24 said the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, one of the most modern passenger planes.
It was the first crash for the Dreamliner, which began flying commercially in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. The Dreamliner that crashed flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said.
Television channels reported that the crash occurred just after the plane took off at 1.39 pm local time.
Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft began a slow descent with its landing gear extended before exploding in a giant fireball, reported Bloomberg.
The twin-engine plane had reached an altitude of 625 feet (190.5 metres) at a speed of 174 knots, or about 200 miles per hour, according to data from Flightradar24.
The aircraft pilots issued a Mayday call immediately after take-off, according to India's civil aviation regulator, but did not respond to subsequent calls from air traffic controllers. The Dreamliner was being flown by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kundar, who had 8,200 flying hours and 1,100 flying hours of experience, respectively, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.
'The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us,' Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X. 'It is heartbreaking beyond words.'
Ahmedabad is the main city in Modi's home state of Gujarat.
The airport is operated by India's Adani Group conglomerate.
'We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragedy of Air India Flight 171,' Gautam Adani, founder and chairman of the group, posted on X.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the images of the crash were 'devastating' and added that he was being kept informed of the situation. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said King Charles was also being kept updated.
This is the worst airline crash since the Malaysian Airways MH17 in 2014, which was shot down over Ukraine, killing 298 people, according to Aviation Safety Network.
Boeing shares fell 6% in early US trading. The company said it was 'working to gather more information' about the tragedy, reported Reuters.
Boeing has been involved in several accidents in recent years, including two fatal crashes — Lion Air Flight 610 crashed on October 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019.
Air India operates 34 Boeing 787 aircraft, according to data from aviation consultant Cirium. Most are more than 10 years old, the oldest nearly 14. In all, the airline has 192 Boeing and Airbus SE aircraft. In 2023, the Tatas placed a massive order for 470 planes to rejuvenate the fleet.
The last fatal plane crash in India was in 2020 when a Boeing 737 belonging to Air India Express, the airline's low-cost subsidiary, overshot a runway at Kozhikode International Airport in southern India and plunged into a valley. Twenty-one people were killed in that crash.
Air India's last major crash was in 1985 when Flight 182, a Boeing 747 aircraft, was destroyed by a bomb over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 people on board.
Featured image from Wikimedia Commons (for illustration purposes only).
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Straits Times
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CNA
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Death toll in Air India crash rises to at least 279
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