Expert details how plane crash death toll could easily have been even larger
Although all but one of the 242 onboard the Air India Boeing 787 died following the crash, it is thought the death toll of those on the ground - said to be 29 - could have been greater
The death toll of the India Air plane crash could easily have been even greater than the estimated 270 people, it is argued.
More than the 29 confirmed deaths of people on the ground would have been likely had it not been for the heroic efforts of Good Samaritans who rushed to help, according to Minakshi Parikh, dean of the college, struck by the Boeing 787. He praised the actions of quick-thinking employees and students, some of whom were having lunch and missed impact by inches upon the collision.
She said: "That is human nature, isn't it? When our own people are injured, our first response is to help them. So the doctors who managed to escape ... the first thing that they did was they went back in and dug out their colleagues who were trapped inside. They might not even have survived because the rescue teams take time coming."
Ms Parikh believes more bodies would have pulled from the rubble had her colleagues at BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad, western India, not reacted so swiftly and bravely. It is thought 29 people in the building - and on the ground below it - have been confirmed dead, in addition to 241 people on the plane itself.
Navin Chaudhary, a trainee doctor, rushed towards a window and jumped to help search for injured colleagues and students after the impact on Thursday. He said: "There was fire and many were injured... I felt that as a doctor I could save someone's life. I was safe. So I thought, whatever I can do, I should."
Students also emerged from the smouldering hostel and rushed to save their friends and staff. Akshay Zala, a senior medical student, said the crash felt "like an earthquake." He said: "I could hardly see anything as thick plumes of smoke and dust engulfed everything. I was barely able to breathe."
Mr Zala rushed to safety, running through dust and smoke. He cleaned and bandaged a wound on his left leg then joined others at the medical college's trauma centre to treat the injured. Many, like Ms Parikh, believe those actions and the subsequent treatment were life-saving moments.
Images of the college's dining area shortly after the crash showed parts of the aircraft and pieces of luggage strewn on the floor. Dining plates still containing food lay on the few dusty tables that were left intact by the impact.
The development comes as an expert has claimed new footage of the Air India disaster contains pivotal clues which could help investigators uncover why the plane crashed.
Analysing a new video of the plane's sudden descent, commercial aviator Steve Schreiber said he noticed a "protrusion on the belly of the aircraft", with a "little grey dot" just below it.
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
India regulator asks Air India for training data of pilots, dispatcher of crashed plane
NEW DELHI, June 17 (Reuters) - India's aviation safety watchdog has asked Air India for the training records of the pilots and dispatcher for the plane that crashed last week as part of its investigation into the incident that killed at least 271 people, government memos showed. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation also asked all flying schools to conduct training compliance checks, according to the confidential memos, seen by Reuters. The DGCA said the requests were part of a "regulatory" review of the accident, and also sought details of action taken following the watchdog's audits of Air India in the last few months. It asked for the details to be provided by Monday. It was not clear whether Air India had complied with the directive. The airline and the DGCA did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London with 242 people on board began losing height seconds after take-off in Ahmedabad on Thursday before crashing into nearby buildings. Everyone on board was killed, bar a single passenger, along with about 30 on the ground. Sumeet Sabharwal, who the Indian government has said had 8,200 flying hours of experience and was also an Air India instructor, was the commanding pilot of flight AI171. His co-pilot was Clive Kunder who had 1,100 hours of experience. Sabharwal's funeral took place in Mumbai on Tuesday. The watchdog requested for training details and supporting documents for the pilots, as well as for the flight dispatcher. The memo did not elaborate on the type of documents required, but accident investigations commonly look at a crew's training and qualifications, flight history, medical records and any actions previously taken against them. The memo did not raise any concerns with Air India's operations and some of the requests are standard in the aftermath of a major incident. Dispatchers are DGCA-certified ground-based airline employees whose role includes flight planning, assessing weather and airspace conditions, and coordination with the pilots. While the request for pilot training data was sent by the DGCA, the accident investigation is being led by another wing of the aviation ministry, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau. Air India's Chairman N. Chandrasekaran told staff on Monday the incident should be a catalyst to build a safer airline. The DGCA, through a separate memo dated June 16, also asked flying schools across the country to "strictly follow additional safety and operational measures." The regulator said instructors must check for compliance with procedures concerning training, maintenance and licensing, and coordinate flight plans with nearby airports in advance to ensure any emergencies are dealt with swiftly. "Compliance will be assessed during audits/surveillance," said the memo by the Directorate of Flying Training, reviewed by Reuters. Stephanie Pope, the head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, visited Air India's headquarters near New Delhi and met the airline's chairman to discuss the crash, Reuters reported on Monday. The crash poses a new challenge for Air India, which the Tata Group bought in 2022 and has been trying to revamp, and Boeing, which is trying to rebuild public trust following a series of safety and production crises. In a June 13 memo headed "updating airport emergency plan", seen by Reuters, government-managed airports have also been asked to conduct a full-scale training exercise - typically an emergency drill - on June 30.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Air India plane crash investigators probe whether doomed jet was OVERLOADED and examine training records of pilots as black boxes found in Ahmedabad wreckage reveal crucial new details
Authorities investigating the deadly Air India crash that killed at least 270 are studying the black boxes of the plane, and are looking at whether it was overloaded and if the pilots were properly trained. The Gatwick-bound Air India aircraft, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, crashed on a medical college hostel soon after taking off from the western city of Ahmedabad last Thursday. Only one passenger, British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, survived the crash, while 241 people on board and 29 on the ground were killed in one of India's worst aviation disaster in decades. Experts from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are probing the crash with assistance from the UK, the US and officials from Boeing. Amit Singh, a former pilot and an aviation expert, said the recovery of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, or black boxes, are crucial to piece together the sequence of events. The cockpit voice recorder records pilots' conversation, emergency alarms and any distress signal made before a crash. The plane's digital flight data recorder stores information related to engine and control settings. Both devices are designed to survive a crash. 'The data will reveal everything,' Singh said, adding that the technical details could be corroborated by the cockpit voice recorder that would help investigators know of any communication between air traffic control and the pilots. India's aviation regulatory body has said pilots Sumeet Sabharwal and Clive Kunder made a mayday call before the crash. Singh said the investigating authorities will scan CCTV footage of the nearby area and speak with witnesses to get to the root cause of the crash. Additionally, Singh said, the investigators will also study the pilot training records, total load of the aircraft, thrust issues related to the plane's engine, as well as its worthiness in terms of past performances and any previously reported issues. Aurobindo Handa, former director general of India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, said the investigators across the world follow a standard UN-prescribed Manual of Accident Investigation, also called 'DOC 9756,' which outlines detailed procedures to arrive at the most probable cause of a crash. Handa said the investigation into last week's crash would likely be a long process as the aircraft was badly charred. He added that ascertaining the condition of the black boxes recovered from the crash site was vital as the heat generated from the crash could be possibly higher than the bearable threshold of the device. The Indian government has set up a separate, high-level committee to examine the causes leading to the crash and formulate procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future. The committee is expected to file a preliminary report within three months. Authorities have also begun inspecting and carrying out additional maintenance and checks of Air India's entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners to prevent any future incident. Air India has 33 Dreamliners in its fleet. People look at the debris of an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad of India's Gujarat state, June 12, 2025 The plane that crashed was 12 years old. Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft. There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts. There were 53 British nationals on board Flight AI171 when it crashed into a residential area near the airport, as well as 159 Indian nationals, seven Portuguese citizens and a Canadian. Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday he hoped decoding the first black box, the flight data recorder, would 'give an in-depth insight' into the circumstances of the crash. Aviation experts believe the Boeing 787 Dreamliner may suddenly lost power 'at the most critical phase of flight' after takeoff. The possible causes are believed to include a rapid change in wind or a bird strike leading to a double-engine stall. Commercial airline pilot Steve Schreiber, who analyses plane crashes and close calls, said a new HD-quality video is a 'gamechanger' in diagnosing the cause and suggested the footage supported the dual engine failure theory. He pointed out that in the footage, a small device is seen extended underneath the plane's fuselage, known as the Ram Access Turbine (RAT), whose function is to support the aircraft's electrical power and hydraulic pressure in an emergency. Schreiber said that on a 787 there are three things that will deploy the RAT automatically: a massive electrical failure; a massive hydraulic failure; or a dual engine failure. The Boeing jet took off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel airport in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat at 1:38pm local time (08:08 BST). The flight reached an altitude of just 625 feet, or 190 metres, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24. There it glided, seemingly suspended midair, but seconds later began descending rapidly as the engines appeared to give out. The underside of the jet smashed into a building housing trainee doctors working at the nearby BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital, killing dozens more civilians. The death toll now stands at 279 as rescuers continue picking through rubble.
ITV News
2 hours ago
- ITV News
Families of British victims of Air India crash feel abandoned by UK Government
"We want our brothers and sister and our niece to be with us": ITV News Correspondent Sejal Karia speaks to the family of Akeel, Hannaa and Sara The families of three of the British victims of the Air India disaster in Ahmedabad have criticised the UK's response to the disaster, saying they "feel utterly abandoned". Akeel Nanawaba, Hannaa Vorajee, and their four-year-old daughter Sara were on their way home to Gloucester after a surprise visit to India. Then disaster struck. Their family is devastated by their loss, after the Air India plane they were flying on crashed in Ahmedabad. The aircraft struck a medical college hostel in a residential part of Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board, 52 of whom were British. Speaking of little Sara, Hannaa's brother Mohammed Vorajee, says "She wasn't just my niece, she was my everything. "She was the life of both of our families. She was the life of the community." There have been torturous waits outside the hospital, where authorities are carrying out the task of identifying the bodies. Hampering their family's grief, is what they describe as an 'appalling' response by the UK Government. "They haven't contacted me once" said Akeel's brother, Hamzah Nanabawa. "They haven't even been down to the DNA centre or the hospital. "And this is what hurts us the most. Give us answers." A Foreign Office spokesperson said there is reception centre at a nearby hotel and a helpline, but the families wants a British representative at the hospital. Foreign Office Minister Hamish Falconer said: "I understand how frustrating it is for families who have not yet been able to lay their loved ones to rest "I recognise the pain and frustration that this has caused. "The Indian authorities are working around the clock with UK support to be able to do this."
