Air India crash kills all but one person on board
Rachel Mealey: Traumatic scenes are playing out across the West Indian city of Ahmedabad after a passenger jet crashed into a residential district shortly after take-off. It appears that all but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner have died. Most were Indian nationals. There were also more than 50 Britons, Portuguese citizens and one Canadian. But the total death toll is much higher, now reportedly exceeding 260, as locals killed in the crash are also recovered from the rubble. South Asia Bureau Chief Meghna Bali reports from the crash site in Ahmedabad.
Meghna Bali: Thick black smoke billows from the crash site as fire crews rush to put out the inferno. Ambulances race to the scene as the desperate search for survivors begins. Flight AI171 took off from Ahmedabad airport bound for London with 242 people on board. Thirty seconds after take-off, it came down in a residential area, crashing into a hostel housing medical students. Fifty of them were also injured among other locals. The total death toll and number of those injured still unclear.
Loved one: My sister was going to London, she was going to London. The plane crashed before she could reach London.
Loved one 2: My uncle was on the plane and as soon as I got here we began trying to call his phone but we were unable to connect, possibly because of his phone being on flight mode.
Meghna Bali: 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, 7 Portuguese citizens and one Canadian were on board. It was first feared all passengers and crew had died, but a miracle later emerged. There was one sole survivor, Ramesh Viswashkumar, a British national, flying home to his wife and little boy. Ajay Valgi, the cousin of the sole survivor, spoke to the BBC from London.
Ajay Valgi: Nothing, all he said that he's fine, nothing else.
BBC reporter: So Vishwash called the family and said he's fine?
Ajay Valgi: Yeah, he's fine, I said nothing else.
BBC reporter: And who, and what happened to his brother, you said he was sat with his brother on the...
Ajay Valgi: Yeah, they were sitting next to each other, but we don't know what happened to his brother. We not heard anything, there's no any update.
Meghna Bali: Among those less fortunate, British couple Fiongal and Jamie. Just moments before boarding, they posted this video message on social media.
UK passenger: We are in the airport, just boarding.
Campbell Wilson: Goodbye India. Goodbye, 10 hour flight back to England.
Meghna Bali: India's aviation minister, Ram Mohan Naidu, spoke from the scene, saying the investigation will leave no stone unturned.
Ram Mohan Naidu: I'm totally shaken by the incident that has happened today near Ahmedabad airport. Very tragic and very, very horrific. And even till now, I have to say I'm in a state of shock.
Meghna Bali: Air India is flying families to the city. Its CEO and managing director is Campbell Wilson.
Campbell Wilson: This is a difficult day for all of us at Air India. And our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, their families and loved ones.
Meghna Bali: It's India's worst aviation crash since the Chakri-Dadri mid-air collision in 1996. Questions are already being raised about the Boeing jet, which until now had an exemplary safety record, in contrast to its 737 Max plane. This is Meghna Bali in Ahmedabad reporting for AM.
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7NEWS
an hour ago
- 7NEWS
What does an investigation into a major crash look like?
As the world reels from the devastating plane crash in India, everyone is left asking: How does this happen? And what happens next? While rescue teams on the ground are saving lives and retrieving the dead, a whole different yet crucial process begins in the background — the crash investigation. Australian aviation consultant and Managing Director of Aviation Projects Keith Tonkin has shed light on how officials around the globe deal with these tragedies. 'The very first steps are to conduct the rescue and recovery operation,' Tonkin told After these first steps, a complex investigation procedure begins — one that often spans continents, years of research, and ultimately influences the course of aviation safety. Who examines a crash? Under international aviation law, the country where the accident occurred is responsible for carrying out the investigation. In the case of the Air India crash, India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is undertaking the investigation. Other countries are introduced based on their association with the event — for example, where the aircraft was built or designed, or whether there were large numbers of victims from another country. 'In the India crash, the United States will be involved because the aircraft was manufactured there,' Tonkin said. 'The UK is also participating because some passengers were British nationals.' What do they look for? Investigators use a combination of physical wreckage, electronic data, and human records to understand what happened during the incident. This includes: The black box — which is actually orange in colour — with flight data and cockpit audio The position of key components — if landing gear was deployed or engines were producing thrust Maintenance records, pilot training logs, and flight dispatch notes Environmental conditions like weather, wind, and visibility Video or audio information recorded by witnesses or onboard systems 'They'll look at physical evidence, witness remarks or telltale signs from the state of the physical aircraft, the engines to see if the engines were generating thrust or not, voice recorder and the flight data recorder that will have data on a number of different parameters of the aircraft for some time prior to the accident,' Tonkin said. How long does it take? These investigations are complex — involving global cooperation, technical reconstruction, and typically grieving families looking for answers. 'Probably expect one and a half or two years to get the full report, but there'll be preliminary results released in a few weeks,' Tonkin said. These preliminary reports can have a bearing on short-term safety suggestions, but it requires the full report to reveal the full picture. Could this ground other planes? When investigators discover a systemic safety risk, the regulators can choose to ground all planes of the model temporarily. That was done with the Boeing 737 MAX in 2019, following two deadly crashes linked to faulty software. 'If there's a systemic issue that relates to a particular aircraft type that needs to be resolved straight away, and that is a real important safety issue, then they will ground the fleet,' Tonkin said. In Australia, Virgin Australia and Bonza operate the Boeing 737 MAX. Its employment has been certified by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), and it is regularly monitored for worldwide incidents. Can crashes change world aviation? Yes. Most of the most significant developments in aviation safety — from enhanced cockpit alerts to stricter maintenance schedules — were born out of tragedy. 'They can all be influenced by the results of these investigations,' Tonkin said. If an accident reveals shortcomings in the design, maintenance or operation of an aircraft, lessons are shared worldwide. The International Civil Aviation Organisation allows worldwide rule changes to prevent future catastrophes. What about the airline? Restoring confidence may be a difficult and lengthy process for the participating carrier — in this case, Air India. 'People will be rightfully concerned about hopping on another aircraft,' Tonkin said. Tonkin said that the airline has to 'double down on responding to whatever the findings are from the investigation' and take measures to prevent a repeat. Each crash has long-term consequences for passengers, airlines, regulators, and the global flying public. These investigations don't just tell us what went wrong — they make sure it doesn't happen again.
ABC News
5 hours ago
- ABC News
Funerals held as Air India crash victim remains handed over to relatives in Ahmedabad
Mourners in India have covered white coffins with flowers as funerals were held for some of the at least 279 people killed in one of the world's worst plane crashes in decades. Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing, delivering them to grieving relatives in the western city of Ahmedabad, but the wait went on for most families. "They said it would take 48 hours. But it's been four days and we haven't received any response," said Rinal Christian, 23, whose elder brother was a passenger on the jetliner. There was one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the London-bound Air India jet when it crashed on Thursday into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground as well. "My brother was the sole breadwinner of the family," Mr Christian said. "So what happens next?" At a crematorium in the city, about 20 to 30 mourners chanted prayers in a funeral ceremony for Megha Mehta, a passenger who had been working in London. As of Sunday evening (India time), 47 crash victims had been identified, according to Rajnish Patel, a doctor at Ahmedabad's civil hospital. "This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only," Dr Patel said. One victim's relative who did not want to be named said they had been instructed not to open the coffin when they receive it. Witnesses reported seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains. Workers went on clearing debris from the site on Sunday, while police inspected the area. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it went down moments after take-off, smashing into buildings used by medical staff. The majority of those injured on the ground have been discharged, Dr Patel said, with one or two remaining in critical care. Indian authorities have yet to identify the cause of the disaster and have ordered inspections of Air India's Dreamliners. Investigators announced they had recovered the plane's digital flight data recorder, or the black box, from a rooftop near the crash site. The device is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings, while the voice recorder will provide cockpit conversations, said Paul Fromme, a mechanical engineer with the UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers. India's Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said he hoped decoding the first black box, the flight data recorder, would "give an in-depth insight" into the circumstances of the crash. Alongside the formal investigation, the Indian government has set up a high-level committee to examine the causes leading to the crash. The committee will focus on formulating procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement on Saturday. Authorities have also begun inspecting Air India's entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said on Saturday in New Delhi at his first news briefing since Thursday's crash. Eight of the 34 Dreamliners in India have already undergone inspection, Mr Kinjarapu said, adding that the remaining aircraft will be examined with "immediate urgency". The plane that crashed was 12 years old. Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft. There are currently about 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts. Imtiyaz Ali, who was still waiting for a DNA match to find his brother, said the airline should have supported families faster. "I'm disappointed in them. It is their duty," said Mr Ali, who was contacted by the airline on Saturday. "Next step is to find out the reason for this accident. We need to know." One person escaped alive from the wreckage, British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, whose brother was also on the flight. Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members. Among the passengers was a father of two young girls, Arjun Patoliya, who had travelled to India to scatter his wife's ashes following her death weeks earlier. "I really hope that those girls will be looked after by all of us," said Anjana Patel, the mayor of London's Harrow borough where some of the victims lived. "We don't have any words to describe how the families and friends must be feeling," she added. While communities were in mourning, one woman recounted how she survived by arriving late at the airport. "The airline staff had already closed the check-in," said 28-year-old Bhoomi Chauhan. "At that moment, I kept thinking that if only we had left a little earlier, we wouldn't have missed our flight," she told the Press Trust of India news agency. AFP/AP
The Advertiser
16 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Air India crash victims identified, US experts on site
US transport officials have surveyed the site of the Air India plane crash that killed at least 271 people as families wait for DNA profiling results to identify charred bodies. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials joined US Federal Aviation Administration officials in Ahmedabad, in western India's Gujarat state, to survey the crash site, a source with direct knowledge said. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board, bound for Gatwick Airport south of London, began losing height seconds after take-off in Ahmedabad on Thursday, and erupted in a huge fireball as it hit buildings below. All but one on board were declared dead in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. About 30 people died on the ground. Air India and the Indian government were looking at several aspects of the crash, including issues linked to its engine thrust, flaps, and why the landing gear remained open as the plane took off and then came down. US Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Friday he was in the process of deploying a team from the aviation administration and the safety board to India. Boeing and GE, whose engines were used in the plane, were also sending teams. "We'll take action should any recommendations come forward from the NTSB's investigation," Duffy said. The aviation administration and the safety board did not immediately respond to Reuters' queries outside regular business hours. The aviation administration has said India will lead the investigation, but the safety board is the official US representative for assisting, while the administration provides technical support. Boeing officials will also look at various parameters, including the angle of landing. About 10 officials were present at the site on Sunday, including those from the safety board, the source said. India's aviation regulator has ordered all Boeing 787s being operated by local carriers to be inspected. The crash brings a fresh challenge for both Air India, which has for years been trying to revamp its fleet, and Boeing, which is trying to rebuild public trust following a series of safety and production crises. In Ahmedabad, doctors were struggling to identify bodies that were charred in the incident, resorting to dental samples and DNA profiling. DNA samples of 32 victims from the crash have been successfully matched, Rajnish Patel, additional superintendent at the city's main hospital, said on Sunday. "The bodies for which DNA samples have been matched are being handed over to the families with due respect," he said. US transport officials have surveyed the site of the Air India plane crash that killed at least 271 people as families wait for DNA profiling results to identify charred bodies. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials joined US Federal Aviation Administration officials in Ahmedabad, in western India's Gujarat state, to survey the crash site, a source with direct knowledge said. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board, bound for Gatwick Airport south of London, began losing height seconds after take-off in Ahmedabad on Thursday, and erupted in a huge fireball as it hit buildings below. All but one on board were declared dead in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. About 30 people died on the ground. Air India and the Indian government were looking at several aspects of the crash, including issues linked to its engine thrust, flaps, and why the landing gear remained open as the plane took off and then came down. US Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Friday he was in the process of deploying a team from the aviation administration and the safety board to India. Boeing and GE, whose engines were used in the plane, were also sending teams. "We'll take action should any recommendations come forward from the NTSB's investigation," Duffy said. The aviation administration and the safety board did not immediately respond to Reuters' queries outside regular business hours. The aviation administration has said India will lead the investigation, but the safety board is the official US representative for assisting, while the administration provides technical support. Boeing officials will also look at various parameters, including the angle of landing. About 10 officials were present at the site on Sunday, including those from the safety board, the source said. India's aviation regulator has ordered all Boeing 787s being operated by local carriers to be inspected. The crash brings a fresh challenge for both Air India, which has for years been trying to revamp its fleet, and Boeing, which is trying to rebuild public trust following a series of safety and production crises. In Ahmedabad, doctors were struggling to identify bodies that were charred in the incident, resorting to dental samples and DNA profiling. DNA samples of 32 victims from the crash have been successfully matched, Rajnish Patel, additional superintendent at the city's main hospital, said on Sunday. "The bodies for which DNA samples have been matched are being handed over to the families with due respect," he said. US transport officials have surveyed the site of the Air India plane crash that killed at least 271 people as families wait for DNA profiling results to identify charred bodies. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials joined US Federal Aviation Administration officials in Ahmedabad, in western India's Gujarat state, to survey the crash site, a source with direct knowledge said. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board, bound for Gatwick Airport south of London, began losing height seconds after take-off in Ahmedabad on Thursday, and erupted in a huge fireball as it hit buildings below. All but one on board were declared dead in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. About 30 people died on the ground. Air India and the Indian government were looking at several aspects of the crash, including issues linked to its engine thrust, flaps, and why the landing gear remained open as the plane took off and then came down. US Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Friday he was in the process of deploying a team from the aviation administration and the safety board to India. Boeing and GE, whose engines were used in the plane, were also sending teams. "We'll take action should any recommendations come forward from the NTSB's investigation," Duffy said. The aviation administration and the safety board did not immediately respond to Reuters' queries outside regular business hours. The aviation administration has said India will lead the investigation, but the safety board is the official US representative for assisting, while the administration provides technical support. Boeing officials will also look at various parameters, including the angle of landing. About 10 officials were present at the site on Sunday, including those from the safety board, the source said. India's aviation regulator has ordered all Boeing 787s being operated by local carriers to be inspected. The crash brings a fresh challenge for both Air India, which has for years been trying to revamp its fleet, and Boeing, which is trying to rebuild public trust following a series of safety and production crises. In Ahmedabad, doctors were struggling to identify bodies that were charred in the incident, resorting to dental samples and DNA profiling. DNA samples of 32 victims from the crash have been successfully matched, Rajnish Patel, additional superintendent at the city's main hospital, said on Sunday. "The bodies for which DNA samples have been matched are being handed over to the families with due respect," he said. US transport officials have surveyed the site of the Air India plane crash that killed at least 271 people as families wait for DNA profiling results to identify charred bodies. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials joined US Federal Aviation Administration officials in Ahmedabad, in western India's Gujarat state, to survey the crash site, a source with direct knowledge said. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board, bound for Gatwick Airport south of London, began losing height seconds after take-off in Ahmedabad on Thursday, and erupted in a huge fireball as it hit buildings below. All but one on board were declared dead in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. About 30 people died on the ground. Air India and the Indian government were looking at several aspects of the crash, including issues linked to its engine thrust, flaps, and why the landing gear remained open as the plane took off and then came down. US Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Friday he was in the process of deploying a team from the aviation administration and the safety board to India. Boeing and GE, whose engines were used in the plane, were also sending teams. "We'll take action should any recommendations come forward from the NTSB's investigation," Duffy said. The aviation administration and the safety board did not immediately respond to Reuters' queries outside regular business hours. The aviation administration has said India will lead the investigation, but the safety board is the official US representative for assisting, while the administration provides technical support. Boeing officials will also look at various parameters, including the angle of landing. About 10 officials were present at the site on Sunday, including those from the safety board, the source said. India's aviation regulator has ordered all Boeing 787s being operated by local carriers to be inspected. The crash brings a fresh challenge for both Air India, which has for years been trying to revamp its fleet, and Boeing, which is trying to rebuild public trust following a series of safety and production crises. In Ahmedabad, doctors were struggling to identify bodies that were charred in the incident, resorting to dental samples and DNA profiling. DNA samples of 32 victims from the crash have been successfully matched, Rajnish Patel, additional superintendent at the city's main hospital, said on Sunday. "The bodies for which DNA samples have been matched are being handed over to the families with due respect," he said.
