London-bound plane crashes in India with 242 on board
A London-bound passenger plane crashed Thursday in a residential area of the Indian city of Ahmedabad, with all 242 people on board believed killed.
An AFP journalist saw people recovering bodies and firefighters trying to douse the smouldering wreckage after the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner smashed into a building.
"The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after Air India's flight 171 crashed after takeoff.
City police commissioner GS Malik told AFP there "appears to be no survivor in the crash".
"And since the airplane has fallen on an area which was residential and had some offices, there are more casualties as well," he added.
"Our office is near the building where the plane crashed. We saw people from the building jumping from the second and third floor to save themselves. The plane was in flames," said one resident, who declined to be named.
India's civil aviation authority said there were 242 people aboard, including two pilots and 10 cabin crew.
Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian on board the flight bound for London Gatwick.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes from the crash were "devastating", in a statement addressing passengers and their families "at this deeply distressing time."
The plane issued a mayday call and "crashed immediately after takeoff" outside the airport perimeter, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.
Ahmedabad, the main city of India's Gujarat state, is home to around eight million people, and the busy airport is surrounded by densely packed residential areas.
"When we reached the spot there were several bodies lying around and firefighters were dousing the flames," resident Poonam Patni told AFP.
"Many of the bodies were burned," she added.
An AFP journalist saw medics using a cart to load bodies into an ambulance, while a charred metal bed frame stood surrounded by burnt wreckage.
A photograph published by India's Central Industrial Security Force, a national security agency, showed the back of the plane rammed into a building.
The plane came down in an area between Ahmedabad civil hospital and the city's Ghoda Camp neighbourhood.
- 'Devastating' -
Aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu directed "all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action."
"Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site," he added.
The airport was shut with all flights "suspended until further notice", the operator said.
US planemaker Boeing said it was "working to gather more information" on the incident which a source close to the case said was the first crash for a 787 Dreamliner.
Air India ordered 100 more Airbus planes last year after a giant contract in 2023 for 470 aircraft -- 250 Airbus and 220 Boeing.
The airline's chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, said an emergency centre has been activated and a support team set up for families seeking information.
"Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event," he said.
India has suffered a series of fatal air crashes, including a 1996 disaster when two jets collided mid-air over New Delhi, killing nearly 350 people.
In 2010 an Air India Express jet crashed and burst into flames at Mangalore airport in southwest India, killing 158 of the 166 passengers and crew on board.
India's airline industry has boomed in recent years with Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), last month calling growth "nothing short of phenomenal".
The growth of its economy has made India and its 1.4 billion people the world's fourth-largest air market -- domestic and international -- with IATA projecting it will become the third biggest within the decade.
India's domestic air passenger traffic reached a milestone last year by "surpassing 500,000 passengers in a single day", according to India's Ministry of Civil Aviation.
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Originally published as London-bound plane crashes in India with 242 on board
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