Air India plane crash: Families in Ahmedabad endure agonising wait for victims' bodies
Families just want the bodies of their loved ones.
They have gathered in the scorching summer heat outside the morgue in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and crane their necks to get a glimpse of the next stretcher carrying a body bag to a waiting ambulance.
The process for identifying bodies after the Air India plane crash is painstaking and some have been burnt beyond recognition. All but one of the 242 people on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner died.
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DNA samples are being matched with relatives, but patience is running thin.
The wait for Lila Behan is agonising. She wails and cries, longing to see her grandson Akash one last time.
She tells Sky News that he was outside when the aircraft crashed into their quarters.
There was fire all around, her daughter-in-law Sita ran towards the flames and got severely burned. She's fighting for her life in the hospital's intensive care unit.
"I can't even see my child's face now, they said he's so severely burnt. But I just want to see him for one last time," she says.
Anand Thanki lost three members of his extended family, including an infant. All were British nationals from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.
His sister-in-law Raxa had travelled to India with her daughter-in-law Yasha and infant grandson Rudra for a religious ceremony.
Raxa lost her husband to cancer two months ago and this was a ritual she needed to perform.
Anand tells Sky News: "It's a big loss, but what can we do? We can only blame our fate, it's probably written for us.
"Worst was for my nephew who had dropped them at the airport, returned home and heard the news of the incident."
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the crash site and assessed the situation.
He knows the city well, it's personal for him.
He has been a legislator for over a decade and previously served as the chief minister of the state of Gujarat.
At the crash site, he walked around debris and the block of flats which were in the flight path of the plane.
The aircraft began losing altitude and within minutes of take-off, it plummeted to the ground, erupting in a fireball.
At the hospital, Mr Modi met Vishwash Kumar Ramesh - the only person to escape the aircraft. He spoke of his miraculous escape.
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The scale of the tragedy has been compounded by its location. The plane came down right in the heart of a built-up neighbourhood, with the front of the aircraft crashing into residential quarters for medical students.
The wheels and tail of the plane are embedded in the top floor of one of the buildings, where many had gathered for lunch in a dining hall.
Plates are still on tables - evidence that residents were eating when the aircraft tore through.
There were at least 23 victims on the ground, including students, doctors and family members. Some are in a critical condition.
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The cause of the crash remains unknown. Investigators will now begin the long and complex process of establishing what went wrong.
But many families will grapple with the unimaginable loss after one of the worst disasters in India's aviation history.
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Daily Mail
37 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
British Air India disaster survivor's first words to his father after he survived the crash are revealed as more bodies are recovered and death toll rises to 279
The first words the sole survivor of the devastating Air India flight said to his father after his brother was killed on the Gatwick-bound aircraft has been revealed. British national, Viswashkumar Ramesh, 40 was returning from a business trip in India with his brother Ajay Kumar, 35, when they boarded the doomed flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick on Thursday. In what has been described as a miracle, Viswash Kumar, who was seated in 11A survived the disaster, which is said to be one of the worst in India's aviation history, having claimed the lives of 279 people so far. Among the victims believed to be dead, which includes 53 British nationals, is the 40-year-old's brother Ajay Kumar, who was sat on the other side of the aisle in seat 11J perished in the fireball explosion. Terrifying CCTV footage showed the Boeing 787 Dreamliner careen to the ground shortly after take off in the densely populated Meghani area of the city at around 1.40pm local time (8.10am BST). Detailing the moments after the crash, Viswash described seeing several passengers and crew lose their lives as parts of the plane were scattered around the site. He managed to escape after his side of the plane fell onto the ground of a floor building, forcing his way out of the plane, past a broken door before being assisted by locals and taken to hospital in an ambulance. Still clutching his boarding pass at the hospital, he called his father in the aftermath of the tragedy. His brother Nyan Kumar Ramesh told Sky News: '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'.' A video posted to social media appeared to show the plane descending in a controlled manner with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed The plane momentarily disappeared from view behind trees and buildings before a massive fireball erupted on the horizon in this horrifying clip Devastatingly, injured Viswash has been begging from his hospital bed: 'Find Ajay, you must find Ajay.' His cousin, Ajay Valgi, told the BBC, how Viswash has a wife and 'little boy' at home: adding: 'He only said that he's fine, nothing else. [We are] happy that he's OK, but we're still upset about the other brother.' Previously said of his younger cousin's, Ajay's death: 'I'm feeling absolutely upset. He's not just my cousin, he's also one of my best friends as well. 'They were sitting next to eachother, but we don't know what happened to [Ajay Kumar]. We're not doing well. We're all upset.' On Thursday, relatives gathered at the family's terraced home in Leicester to comfort the brothers' mother who is said to be too grief-stricken to speak. 'It's a miracle at least one of them survived,' younger brother Nayan said. 'He said his plane had crashed and he couldn't find anyone, we couldn't believe it. There was blood running down his face. The tragedy's death toll has since increased to 279 dead, according to a senior Indian police source, making it one of the deadliest plane disasters of the 21st century. This is a further increase on an earlier figure of 265 victims, which includes those on the plane and grounds. The siblings had been a few seats apart onboard the plane, with survivor Viswash sat at 11A and his younger brother positioned at 11J on the other side of the aisle Air India said there were 242 people on board the London-bound flight, with only one survivor, with at least 38 people killed on the ground when the plane smashed into residential buildings. The official casualty number will not be finalised until the slow process of DNA identification is completed. 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. MailOnline previously revealed the British victims were Akeel Nanawaba, Hannaa Vorajee and their daughter Sarah, 4, Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek, Javed Ali Syed, his wife and two children, Raxa Modha, her grandson Rudra and her daughter-in-law Yasha Kamdar, and Ajay Kumar Ramesh, the brother of the tragedy's only survivor. Relatives of Harrods ambassador Mariam Ali Syed, 35, her husband Javed - a manager at the Best Western Kensington Olympia Hotel - have spoken out since the tragedy. The couple's children Zayn, five, and Amani, four, are believed to be the youngest named victims of the crash so far. Mrs Ali Syed's sister-in-law, Yasmine Hassan, 45, broke down while confirming the children's names, and pleaded with officials to offer more support to the families of the 53 British citizens onboard the flight. 'They are so small, they are five and four. And it's just thinking how scared they must have been,' she told the Telegraph. 'We're not angry about the lack of answers [from UK government officials] – we understand that takes time. 'We're angry because no one has reached out to offer support or even ask if we need anything. These are British citizens.' Adam Taju, 72, and his wife Hasina, 70, were flying back to the UK with their son-in-law Altafhusen Patel, 51, when they lost their lives in the tragedy, The four had been spending time with Mr Taju's 96-year-old father in India to celebrate Eid, their son Altaf Taju told MailOnline. 'He's the one they wanted to see because he's 96 and it's very hot in India. No one goes to India this time of year but they said 'We don't know how long he's going to be around, let's go and celebrate Eid.' Altaf added : 'I'm the eldest person in the family now. I'm here with my sisters. I'm flying out with my two sisters. The other one can't make it as she's a cancer patient. Adam was a retired machinist who'd worked making leather coats and Hasina had been a housewife. The couple, who had lived in a terraced property in Ilford since the 1970s, had four children, a boy and three girls. One of their daughters who lives has since flown back to Redbridge to be with family. Adam's son, Altaf Taju, told the Mail the family hoped to be flying out to India by Sunday, so they could conduct the burials next week. Mr Taju, who is from Blackburn, said he'd travelled down to London to support his sister Shamim who was married to Altafhusen Patel. Altaf and Shamim had a 26-year-old son, Amman, who was holidaying in Malaysia with wife Imaan, 22, when the plane crash happened. Mr Taju said: 'I'm okay. I'm the eldest son of the family. My uncle rang me to tell me what had happened. 'We've lost three members of my family and my brother in law who's married to my sister. My sister is alone here.' Explaining how burials of his family members will take place in their respective home villages, his mother and father in Sansrod, Gujarat and his brother-in-law in Bharuch, Mr Taju called for the release of the bodies. 'We need to get the release of the bodies and bring them home and start mourning in the Islamic way, whatever is left of them,' he said. 'I have told them to wait for us, until we get there, because I want to put them down in the grave.' Friend and neighbour Iqbal Hussain, 44, who has known Adam and Hasina since he was a child, described them as a 'smiling' and 'loving family'. 'It's a sad thing. They were happy when they left [to go to India]. They were going on holiday to celebrate Eid,' he said. 'They were part of the Neighbourhood Watch group. We're all devastated. 'Anything they needed we'd help them with. They weren't very IT savvy and I used to help them out,' the IT manager added: 'We grew up with their children. I was friends with Afia, their youngest daughter.' Recalling the moment his local councillor who's from the Gujarat community informed him of the plane crash, as well as Adam and Hasina being on board, Mr Hussain said: ''I thought 'That cannot be true'. 'I called the youngest daughter [Afia]. She was crying. She didn't say much. All she said was 'Say prayers for my parents'. She was hoping they were okay and alive.' Councillor Salim Patel described Adam as 'a wonderful man, a community man', who was 'always out and about supporting communities'. 'He will be very missed,' he said: 'It will take a very long time for this community to accept he's not there. It's a great loss, to lose him as a human being. 'Whatever the community needed he would stand up with the community, whether it was to help campaign against fly-tipping or help people in need during Covid. 'Whenever I needed his support, he would be there. 'He was a kind and humble gentleman. There are no words to describe how we are going to miss him. I've known him for nearly 30 years. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner issued a mayday call moments before it crashed around lunchtime on Thursday after lifting barely 100 metres (330 feet) from the ground. Investigators have also since recovered a black box recorder on Friday from the crash site, with forensic teams still looking for the second. US planemaker Boeing said it was in touch with Air India and stood 'ready to support them' over the incident, which a source close to the case said was the first crash for a 787 Dreamliner. It comes as an aviation expert believes the co-pilot on Air India flight AI171 pulled the plane's wing flaps instead of retracting the landing gear, causing the plane to crash. Commercial airline pilot and YouTuber Captain Steve, who analyzes plane crashes and close calls, gave his theory on the incident which killed 241 people on board. The London -bound 787 Dreamliner began losing height moments after take-off and crashed in a fireball over a residential area in the Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Steve said he suspected there had been an exceptionally simple error in the cockpit when the co-pilot was asked to retract the landing gear, with devastating consequences. He said: 'Here's what I think happened, again folks this is just my opinion. I think the pilot flying said to the co-pilot said 'gear up' at the appropriate time. Rescuers work at the site of an airplane that crashed in India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, Thursday, June12, 2025 The tail of the Dreamliner plane that crashed, hitting buildings in a residential area Remnants of the fuselage and the landing gear were seen dangling through a gaping hole in the side of what appeared to be a canteen, with half-finished plates of food clearly visible on benches inside Parts of the jet appeared to have smashed into the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital Read More Expert's theory on simple mistake he thinks Air India co-pilot made that caused crash and killed 265 'I think the co-pilot grabbed the flap handle and raised the flaps, instead of the gear. If that happened, this explains a lot of why this airplane stopped flying.' Steve said that the flaps being raised would cause the flight to lose airspeed and altitude quickly, something he thinks the pilot would have struggled to control. He explained his theory by saying the 787's composite wings would normally bend during take off as lift forces take it into the air. But the Air India plane appears to show no such bending, amid widespread speculation the flaps which help lift the plane off had accidentally been retracted. It remains unclear what caused Thursday's tragedy, with mechanical failure or pilot error among the possible causes that investigators will now work to identify. Among those believed to have died is Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, the pilot operating the Boeing 787. Mr Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of experience, was named as the pilot of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. First Officer Clive Kunder, from Mumbai and who was co-piloting, had logged 1,100 of flying hours and completed his training at the Florida-based Paris Air Flight School.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Why did the Air India flight crash? Here's how experts will investigate the 30-second disaster
Investigators in India are trying to identify the cause of the Air India plane crash that killed all but one of the 242 passengers onboard. The flight, which had been bound for London Gatwick, came down shortly after taking off from the western city of Ahmadabad. With speculation rife about the cause of the disaster, safety experts will soon be joined by a team from the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) to work out what happened before the disaster on flight AI171 unfolded. According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad Airport, the aircraft departed at 1:39 p.m. (0809 GMT) from runway 23. It gave a Mayday call almost immediately, signalling an emergency, but thereafter there was no response from the aircraft. Footage from the ground shows that the the plane was only in the air for around 30 seconds before it appeared to run into trouble, the BBC reports. The investigators will draw evidence – including radar, CCTV and crucially the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) – to understand what factors were involved in the accident, the first fatal one involving the Boeing 787. If there is evidence of a previously unknown problem that could jeopardise the safety of other aircraft, they will announce their initial conclusions as soon as possible. As always in the early stages of an investigation, aviation safety experts will consider a wide spectrum of possible contributory factors. These are the key areas they will be looking at. Bird strike Twin-engined aircraft like the Boeing 787 are engineered to be able to take off on a single engine, even if a bird strike happens at the worst possible moment. Could both engines have been put out of action as the Air India aircraft climbed? In the ' Miracle on the Hudson' plane crash in 2009, both engines of a US Air aircraft lost power shortly after take off from New York's La Guardia airport. On that occasion, the plane had gained more altitude and was able to crash-land on water, with all on board surviving. Mechanical issues As the investigators sift through the wreckage, they will be looking to see if there was some kind of failure, possibly involving power, that left the pilots helpless to control their aircraft in the crucial seconds after take off. Philip Baum, visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University told The Independent it 'seems likely' the accident was caused by system or multiple systems failures. Human factors Taking off with a heavy load of fuel, passengers and cargo in hot weather is challenging at the best of times. Could these highly trained and experienced pilots have made decisions and taken actions that jeopardised the safety of the aircraft? A captain for a leading US carrier said some focus should be given to the flap settings – the moveable panels on an aircraft's wings – used for take-off for 'a heavy airplane on a hot day, and resulting poor performance which ultimately may have led to a stall'. Investigators will be examining the wreckage, the recorders and will also be delving into the background and health of the crew. Malicious act Tragically, over the years individuals and groups have repeatedly downed aircraft for reasons ranging from grudges to terrorism. But Professor Baum said it was 'unlikely there was anything more sinister at play'.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Thousands to line streets for Trooping the Colour marking King's birthday
Update: Date: 09:11 BST Title: Royals to honour air crash victims at Trooping the Colour Content: Sean CoughlanRoyal correspondent, reporting from the Mall King Charles has asked the Royal Family taking part in the Trooping the Colour parade to wear black armbands, as a mark of respect to the victims of the Air India plane crash, Buckingham Palace said. The King requested a minute's silence, which will come after his inspection of the parade, in recognition of "the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy", a Palace spokesman said. The King had sent a message of support soon after the news broke of the air crash, which claimed the lives of all but one of the 242 passengers and crew. Flags have been at half-mast at royal residences and the black armbands will add another sign of respect, with the King having said he was "desperately shocked by the terrible events in Ahmedabad". Coachmen and women on carriages in the parade are also likely to wear black armbands, along with those senior royals in military uniform in the parade, including the King and the Prince of Wales. Those royals at the ceremony but not in uniform will probably not wear armbands. Read more: Royals to honour air crash victims at Trooping the Colour Update: Date: 08:48 BST Title: Horses prepared, uniforms cleaned, boots shined - it's nearly time for Trooping the Colour Content: King Charles III presented new colours to the Number 7 Company Coldstream Guards at Windsor Castle yesterday. It's time to buckle yourselves in for the pomp and ceremony of this year's Trooping the Colour - an annual military parade celebrating the monarch's official birthday. King Charles' actual birthday is 14 November, but Trooping the Colour has marked the monarch's birthday in June for more than 260 years. This year it's the Number 7 Company Coldstream Guards trooping their flag - also known as their 'colour' - in the presence of the King, with more than 1,350 soldiers of the Household Division of the British Army expected to take part in today's parade. There'll be music to march along to, royals to spot, and an RAF flypast zooming across the skies over central London near Buckingham Palace. We've got the BBC's royal correspondent Sean Coughlan reporting from the Mall to bring you the latest updates on the ground. Clare Balding will also present the BBC's live coverage when the military parade kicks off at 10:30 BST - you can follow along by clicking Watch Live at the top of this page. Stick with us.
