Air India flight crashes with 242 on board
A passenger plane has crashed at an airport in India's western city of Ahmedabad, with 242 people on board. The number of casualties was not immediately clear. Air India said that one of its flights bound for London was involved in an 'incident.' CNN's Will Ripley reports.
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Air India's sole crash survivor narrates his escape
NEW DELHI (AP) — The lone passenger who survived the Air India crash that killed 241 people onboard couldn't believe he was alive when he opened his eyes, surrounded by flames, debris and charred bodies. The British national of Indian origin, Viswashkumar Ramesh, was headed to London when the flight crashed minutes after taking off from India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon. 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. Currently admitted in a local government hospital, Ramesh narrated his ordeal to India's national broadcaster, saying the aircraft seemed stuck midair within a few seconds of the takeoff. He said green and white lights came on, and right after that, the aircraft accelerated but seemed unable to gain height before it crashed. Seated in 11A, Ramesh said his side of the plane fell onto the ground floor of a building, and there was space for him to escape after the door broke open. He unfastened his seat belt and forced himself out of the plane. 'When I opened my eyes, I realized I was alive,' he said. Ramesh sustained burn injuries on his left hand and walked some distance in shock before he was assisted by the locals and taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the crash side on Friday, met the lone survivor. 'I told Modi what all I had witnessed. He also enquired about my health,' Ramesh said from his hospital bed. Dr. Dhaval Gameti, who treated him, said he was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body but seems to be out of danger. Ramesh, who had his boarding pass with him in the hospital, said he saw several passengers and crew members losing their lives and parts of the plane strewn around the crash site. Ramesh was traveling with his brother and called relatives in Leicester after the crash, his cousin, Ajay Valgi, told the BBC. He has a wife and 'little boy' at home. 'He only said that he's fine, nothing else,' Valgi said, adding that the family is 'happy that he's OK, but we're still upset about the other brother.' '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',' he told Sky. This story corrects the spelling of Ramesh's first name.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
First "black box" reportedly found at Air India crash site
Ahmedabad, India — There were reports Friday that at least one of the so-called "black boxes" — the flight data and cockpit voice recorders — from Air India flight 171 had been recovered from the charred wreckage left in India's western city of Ahmedabad when the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner slammed into buildings, killing all but one of the 242 people on the plane and dozens on the ground. The data recorders will be vital to investigators as they try to figure out what caused the passenger jet to crash just minutes after it took off from Ahmedabad for London's Gatwick Airport. "Directorate General of Civil Aviation team have recovered one black box from the crash site," the French news agency AFP quoted a senior state police officer as saying Friday. They did not say whether it was believed to be the flight data or cockpit voice recorder. The tragedy was captured Thursday on video from multiple angles. CCTV images show the moment the ill-fated Air India flight took off for what should have been a nine-and-a-half-hour trip to London. But just seconds later, the Boeing is seen starting to slow down. The two pilots on the aircraft issued a mayday call, but it was too late. The plane, with no fire or damage visible, careens into accommodation buildings used by medical students and then bursts into an inferno. Rescue workers scoured the site for survivors and, miraculously, one man, British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who had been in seat 11a on the Air India flight, right next to his brother, walked away from the crash site with only minor injuries. Nayan Kumar Ramesh, another brother back in England, described the moment the family heard from Vishwash. "He video called my dad as he crashed, saying, 'Our 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 said his brother's primary concern was for their other sibling, who has remained officially missing since the crash. It was India's worst aviation disaster in more than 25 years. U.S. and British authorities were quickly sent to assist with the investigation, as more than 50 of those killed from the plane were U.K. nationals and the aircraft was made in the U.S. Forensic teams were at the scene of the crash on Friday, along with various Indian officials, and ambulances, ready to transport the remains of victims. Indian officials were cited by local media as saying that, given the level of the destruction, DNA testing would be required to confirm the final death toll both from the plane and from the buildings at the site. CBS News saw members of one family begging authorities for access to the site. Ravi Thakur hadn't heard anything from his mother, who served food at the residential building that the plane crashed into, since the disaster. She was caring for his 2-year-old daughter, and both of them were missing. "We have only one hope that they survive," Thakur told CBS News. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to inspect the site, and he described the accident as "heartbreaking beyond words." Video shows Air India plane crashing in Ahmedabad Air India plane crashes shortly after takeoff, carrying more than 240 people An accused woman skips her pedicure, kills her ex-husband
an hour ago
What to know about the Air India plane crash that killed more than 240 people
AHMEDABAD, India -- The Air India plane crash this week was one of India's worst aviation disasters, killing 241 people on board and several people on the ground. Indian authorities said Friday the investigation into the crash was underway, which is expected to include experts from the plane's maker Boeing and U.S. aviation regulators. The Air India plane crashed minutes after takeoff Thursday afternoon in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad. Surreal images captured both the plane's last moments and the horror of the crash site, with rescuers picking through smoking debris as they searched for survivors. Here's what is known about the crash: The lone survivor was a passenger, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national of Indian origin. Ramesh was thrown from the aircraft and walked to an ambulance, according to Dr. Dhaval Gameti, who treated Ramesh. The doctor told The Associated Press that Ramesh was disoriented, with multiple injuries, but that he seemed to be out of danger. Another medic said Ramesh told him that immediately after the plane took off, it began descending and suddenly split in two, throwing him out before a loud explosion. The airline said there were no other survivors among the 242 passengers and crew on board. Security camera footage verified by The Associated Press showed the plane taking off and then veering slightly to the side. It then drops into a downward glide, disappears briefly from sight and hits the ground. Moments later, a huge orange and black fireball appears, rising high into the air. At the crash site, the tail cone of the aircraft with damaged stabilizer fins still attached was lodged near the top of a building. The plane's jagged cavity has torn into the facade. A web of cracks spirals outward from the plane's impact. The battered building in Ahmedabad was the dining area for medical students, and they were having lunch when the plane crashed. Indrajeet Singh Solanki, an eyewitness and rescuer, said that at first it was chaotic, smoke everywhere. "We could see some small parts (of the plane) burning. Just like this wing lying over here,' he said. 'Through the smoke, we kept rescuing injured people and rushed them to the trauma center in the civil hospital in auto rickshaws. We rushed nine people to the hospital.' The airline had been plagued by tragedy and financial losses under prior state ownership. In 2010, an Air India flight arriving from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, overshot the runway in Mangalore, India, and plunged over a cliff, killing 158 of the 166 people on board. In 2020, a flight for the Air India Express subsidiary skidded off a runway in southern India during heavy rain and cracked in two — killing 18 people and injuring more than 120 others. An Air India Boeing 747 flight crashed into the Arabian Sea in 1978, killing all 213 aboard. The carrier was under government control from 1953 through 2022. The Boeing 787 went into service in 2009. This was the first crash of the model, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. The 787 Dreamliner was the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium ion batteries, which are lighter, recharge faster and can hold more energy than other types of batteries. In 2013 the 787 fleet was temporarily grounded because of overheating of its lithium-ion batteries, which in some cases sparked fires. There was no information yet about possible causes of the crash. Authorities were searching the crash site Friday as part of the investigation, and there was no word whether the plane's black boxes — the flight data and cockpit voice recorders — had been recovered.
