Below the eerily intact tail fin, crumpled metal and bodies block the streets

Telegraph

a day ago

After the crash came scenes of sheer horror and devastation; a hellish, chaotic and blackened tableau of charred body parts.
Local witnesses said they saw the jet explode on impact right after take-off, about a runway's length away from Ahmedabad airport. Plumes of smoke could be seen for miles around.
Twisted metal and rubble rained down onto the streets around a building where the tail of the plane ended up wedged.
'There was smoke everywhere, and the stench was overwhelming,' one witness told The Telegraph. Severed limbs and body parts were visible in several places as locals joined the rescue efforts.
The narrow road near the crash site made it difficult for vehicles to pass. Fire engines and ambulances were parked in an adjacent compound as more emergency personnel arrived.
Some 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian citizen were on board. Among the victims are 11 children. Vijay Rupani, the former Gujarat chief minister was also reportedly killed.
While most of the Boeing Dreamliner lay smashed and scattered surrounded by green bushes in the urban Meghani area, the jet's tail remained intact, eerily wedged into the side of a building thought to be a hostel for the local doctors and medical students.
People inside the building were having lunch in a canteen before the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner struck.
Photos sent from the jet as it took off showed passengers checking their phones and settling down for a long-haul flight.
But then the familiar sound of take-off turned to a terrifying roar as the Air India flight bound for London Gatwick halted its ascent and inexplicably plummeted, smashing into the building.
Bhavna More, an employee of the nearby Civil Supply Corporation, was among the first to hear the impact. 'There was a massive sound,' she said. 'I came outside and saw thick smoke rising. People were running towards the fire. Then a second explosion occurred.'
Dashrathbhai Leua, a Gujarat resident, also described the moment of impact: 'We heard a loud blast. It felt like it came from just a minute away. About ten of us ran toward the site, and then we heard another explosion.
'We couldn't get close because the flames were too intense. People started calling for ambulances. We helped lift several bodies onto the vehicles.'
Many victims could not be reached because of the intensity of the fire – the plane was full of fuel, ready for the journey to Gatwick.
Firemen doused the blazing building with water, but it took hours for emergency crews to finally bring the flames under control near the wreckage. Even then, a small fire continued to smoulder on a nearby tree, where part of the aircraft's wing had landed.
Somehow, an entire rubber wheel had remained in one piece amongst the blackened rubble and fallen trees.
Police personnel and staff from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation arrived in vehicles loaded with white cloth. The quantity was so large that local residents and several journalists began assisting in unloading and distributing the material.
One by one, bodies were placed in ambulances and taken away. Meanwhile, at least 15 trucks and bulldozers were brought in to begin clearing the debris of the aircraft and the collapsed building.
Outside the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, where a trauma centre had been hastily set up, tense and grief-stricken relatives gathered, desperate for any word on their loved ones following the crash.
Authorities initially said there were 'no survivors' from the flight, as the injured on the ground were rushed to emergency wards. Some who arrived looked terribly burned. One British man, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, from London, was found alive.
A man in his late forties broke down near the hospital gates, pleading with officials to let him through.
'My sister and brother-in-law were on the flight. Their seats 110 and 111 were confirmed,' he said.
'Our niece called from London to say 'Mumma and Papa were on the plane.' We're from Naroda and have been moving from one checkpoint to another for over an hour and a half. No one is letting us enter the hospital or even wait nearby. We haven't come here for a picnic, we've lost our family.'
Mahendra Vasandiya, 65, another relative of passengers on board, stood quietly among the crowd.
'My younger brother and his wife were travelling to London to see their daughter,' he said. 'I still have no information about them. No one is telling us anything.'
Nearby, a woman clutched her phone, struggling to hold back tears.
'My sister-in-law and her husband were on that plane,' she said. 'Their daughter called me in tears from the UK to say they were coming to visit her. I didn't even know they were flying today.'