Air India Plane Crash: Western Railway to run extra trains from Ahmedabad
Following the devasting crash of a London-bound Air India flight, Western Railway has announced the operation of additional trains from Ahmedabad to help manage the travel disruption caused by the incident. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, carrying 242 people, including 12 crew members, crashed shortly after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport today afternoon.
As a result, flight operations at the airport were disrupted, prompting the railways to step in to support stranded passengers. Western Railway has also sent its Disaster Management Team, along with medical staff and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel, to assist the Gujarat government and other agencies in ongoing rescue and relief efforts.
"In response to the tragic Ahmedabad plane crash, the Disaster Management Team of Western Railway is actively extending full support in relief and rescue operations at the site while maintaining close coordination with the State," the railway said in a statement.
"Western Railway Medical Team and RPF (Railway Protection Force) personnel have also already been deployed for assisting in rescue operations. Additionally, Western Railway will operate extra trains from Ahmedabad based on demand. As of now, one train for Mumbai and one train for Delhi are being planned from Ahmedabad," it added.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat government has mobilised three teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), comprising 90 personnel, from Gandhinagar to the crash site to aid rescue operations.
According to senior police officials, the aircraft crashed into a doctor's hostel located just outside the airport perimeter. "After the takeoff, the plane crashed here and after a preliminary enquiry, we got to know that the ... plane crashed into a building, which is a doctors' hostel," Jaipal Singh Rathore, Joint Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad told reporters.
The Ahmedabad City Police has release an emergency helpline number for assistance and information related to the crash. "Ahmedabad City Police Emergency Number for Police Emergency Services and necessary information related to the Ahmedabad Plane Crash 07925620359," Ahmedabad Police stated in a post on X.
(With inputs from ANI)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
20 minutes ago
- India Today
Thrust not achieved, falling, Mayday: Air India pilot's last messages before crash
"Thrust not achieved", "falling", "communication line during this transmission very weak", "Mayday" - these were the final messages sent by the Air India pilot to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at Ahmedabad airport as the London-bound flight crashed into a medical hostel minutes after takeoff, sources told India Today nature of the messages sent by the Air India pilot to the ATC signified that something had gone wrong with the aircraft after Flight AI171 went down after it took off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 1.37 pm on ill-fated flight, headed for London's Gatwick airport, carried 242 people - 230 passengers, two pilots and 10 crew members - and killed 241 of them and left just one survivor, a British national of Indian-origin, who is hospitalised. The crash involving the Air India plane, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, marked the first fatal accident involving a 787 since its commercial debut in 2011. The tragedy has so far claimed 270 Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which investigates aircraft accidents and incidents, recovered the Air India plane's black box 28 hours after the tragedy, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu said on orange-coloured device that was located near the tail of a plane will help investigate the the crash, all planes under the Boeing 787-8/9 fleet of Air India will undergo an enhanced safety inspection starting Sunday, the Civil Aviation Ministry has engine and hydraulic systems monitoring are among the advanced checks ordered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which will seek a report of the checks for today, Naidu, in his first briefing after the Air India flight crash in Ahmedabad, said the black box data from the ill-fated aircraft was being decoded, while multiple agencies and high-level panels are conducting an extensive probe into the tragedy.
Mint
31 minutes ago
- Mint
Death toll in AI plane crash touches 270; Centre forms high-level panel to find causes
Ahmedabad/New Delhi, Jun 14 (PTI) The death toll in the London-bound Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad rose to 270 on Saturday even as the Centre set up a high-level multi-disciplinary panel headed by the Union home secretary to examine the causes that led to the disaster. As investigators pore over wreckage at the BJ Medical College hostel and canteen complex for clues after the crash of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner(AI171) on Thursday, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said aviation regulator DGCA has ordered "extended surveillance" for the Tata-owned airline's Boeing 787 series planes. In a post on X, Air India said it has done one-time safety checks on nine of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners and is on track to complete the checks on the remaining 24 such planes as directed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA).The carrier now has 26 legacy Boeing 787-8s and seven Boeing 787-9s in its fleet. All but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board AI171 and another 29 persons including five MBBS students on the ground were killed when the aircraft came down moments after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport before falling inside the nearby campus of the state-run BJ Medical College in Meghaninagar area and going up in flames. "Around 270 bodies have been brought to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital so far from the plane crash site," President of Junior Doctors association of BJ Medical College, Dr Dhaval Gameti, told PTI. The death toll in the country's worst ever air disaster in three decades was earlier put by authorities at 265. As investigators looked into all possible causes for the crash, including loss of thrust in both engines of the 11-year-old aircraft, multiple bird strikes, or a potential flap issue, Naidu told reporters in Delhi that decoding of the Black box is going to give "in-depth insight" into what happened moments before the tragedy. The Digital Flight Data Recorder(DFDR), commonly known as the Black box, was recovered from the "rooftop" of the hostel building at the crash site on Friday. There was no word yet on recovery of another Black box-- the Cockpit Voice Recorder(CVR). This instrument records radio transmissions and other sounds in the cockpit, such as conversations between the pilots and engine noises. Naidu said India has very strict aviation safety standards and robust protocols, and everything will be done to further improve safety. The central panel headed by the Union home secretary will also suggest comprehensive guidelines to prevent incidents like the Ahmedabad crash in the future. It will have its first meeting on Monday. The panel will publish its report in three months, a statement by the Civil Aviation ministry said. The panel will ascertain the root cause of the crash and assess the contributing factors, including mechanical failure, human error, weather conditions, regulatory compliances and other reasons, it said. It will also recommend necessary improvements and formulate suitable Standard Operating Procedures(SOPs) to prevent such incidents in the future. The SOPs would also include best international practices regarding preventing and handling such incidents, the statement said. The ministry said the committee will not be a substitute to other enquiries being conducted by relevant organisations. Chaired by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, the panel has the civil aviation secretary and the additional secretary in the home ministry as members, according to an order dated June 13. Representatives from Gujarat home department, Gujarat disaster response authority, Ahmedabad police commissioner, Indian Air Force's director general of inspection and safety, director generals of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) are part of the committee. Other members include special director of the Intelligence Bureau and director of the Directorate of Forensic Science Services. According to the statement, any other member, including aviation experts, accident investigators and legal advisors may be included in the committee. The panel will assess emergency response of various stakeholders, including rescue operations, and coordination. According to the statement, the panel will have access to all records, including, among others, flight data, cockpit voice recorders, aircraft maintenance records, ATC (Air Traffic Control) log and witness testimonies. The committee will also collaborate with international agencies if foreign nationals or aircraft manufacturers are involved, Civil Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha said the investigation is going on Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is probing the crash. Before the press conference, a one-minute silence was observed to pay homage to the victims of the crash. The process of identification of victims by matching the DNA samples is currently underway, and the bodies will be handed over to their relatives once the process is complete, Dr Gameti said. Authorities of the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital have so far identified six victims on the basis of the DNA samples and initiated the process to hand over the bodies to the relatives, officials said. Earlier, eight victims, who were identified by their relatives and did not need DNA profiling as their bodies were not damaged, had been handed over to their families by the hospital, they said. Additional Chief Fire Officer Jayesh Khadia said, "Our firemen, who are helping forensic and aviation experts in their ongoing investigation at the crash site, found some body parts from the canteen's rubble on Friday, while a body was found today morning." Apart from central and state government agencies, a team of the National Security Guard (NSG) has also been deployed at the crash site. NSG commandos were seen at the crash site on the hostel building where the tail of the plane got stuck after the crash. Sources said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials visited the site on Friday. Fire brigade officials said since the tail fin of the aircraft was stuck on top of the canteen's damaged building, cranes have been roped in to remove it and bring it down. "We will start the work of removing the tail fin from the building and bring it on the ground once Air India officials arrive at the site," Khadia said. Meanwhile, student hostels that suffered damage in the crash are being vacated for a probe by the AAIB and accommodated elsewhere, Minakshi Parikh, the Dean of the B J Medical College said. PTI RAM IAS PJT PD PR ARU NP GSN GSN
Mint
40 minutes ago
- Mint
Air India plane crash: Dream of auto driver's daughter to pursue MTech in London ends in tragedy
Days after the horrific Air India flight AI-717 crash, emotional stories of the passengers onboard are coming to the limelight. One such story is of young woman from Gujarat's Himatnagar – Payal Khatik. Payal, daughter of a loading rickshaw boarded an aeroplane to travel out of the country for the first time on Thursday, reported NDTV. She was amongst the 230 passengers on the Air India Ahmedabad-Gatwick flight which crash after just taking off in Ahmedabad. Payal was the first member of the family to board a flight and she was travelling to the United Kingdom, to pursue a Master's degree in engineering and technology. At around 10 am, her family bid a fond adieu to their beloved daughter and went home. However, within hours she was on the list of 241 passengers and crew who lost their lives in the plane crash. The Air India flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed and inked its name in the worst aviation disaster in 15 years. It hit a medical college building in the city, killing 274 people in total. Payal's death was confirmed by DNA analysis a day after the plane crash, and authorities are investigating why this happened. Speaking to ANI, her father, Suresh Khatik said, 'After completing her college, she stayed with us... she wanted to study further in London. So we took out loans to support her education there...' Suresh stated that he took loans hoping Payal's future job would help pay back and support the family. But now, they have no way to pay back the loans. "She was the first member of our family to travel abroad... she was going to London. She completed her BTech from Udaipur and was going for MTech. But this tragic incident happened. Our family is deeply saddened..." her cousin, Bharat Chauhan, told another news agency IANS. As per the details, Payel hailed from Rajasthan's Udaipur, who studied from Class I to Class X at the Adarsh School in Himatnagar. She completed her Class XI and XII from the Himat High School, added NDTV. "She was educated. She has brothers and sisters... and her father is a driver. But the financial condition of her family was not good," Payal's family friend Sushila Pathak said, whose son she had been tutoring for the past six years. Another relative said, "The financial condition of the family is not good. Payal used to take care of the family by giving tuition to the students..." Earlier on Thursday afternoon, Air India flight AI717 – from Ahmedabad to London's Gatwick – crashed soon after the take off. There were 230 passengers and 10 crew members onboard. However, only one survived the crash. Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, is carrying out the checks on the nation's 787s, Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said in a press briefing on Saturday in New Delhi. The minister added that the government had set up a special multi-department team to investigate all the non-technical aspects around the crash and has been given three months to report. India's accident investigation bureau is in charge of probing the technical aspects behind the plane crash. To determine what caused the aircraft to fail in the deadliest aviation accident in more than a decade, the investigators have been surveying the wreckage of Air India flight AI171. Investigative teams from the UK and US arrived Friday in Ahmedabad to assist with the crash probe.
