Eyewitness on ground recalls Air India plane crash horror: ‘Dead bodies and debris all over'
An Air India aircraft carrying 242 passengers and crew crashed on Thursday afternoon, moments after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport.
Air India said that the flight – AI171 – was heading to London's Gatwick from Ahmedabad. Of the total passengers onboard, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, 1 Canadian national and 7 Portuguese nationals. Follow LIVE updates here.
As reported by Hindustan Times, the aircraft departed from Ahmedabad airport at 1:39pm from runway 23 and moments later, gave a MAYDAY call to the air traffic controllers.
An eyewitness on the ground recounted the plane crash horror and said that dead bodies and debris were scattered all over.
'I was at home when we heard a massive sound. When we went out to see what had happened, there was a layer of thick smoke in the air,' the eyewitness told PTI. "When we came here, dead bodies and debris from the crashed aircraft were scattered all over."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu, asking them to go to Ahmedabad and ensure all possible assistance to those affected in the tragedy, sources said.
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