The London-bound Boeing Dreamliner went down moments after takeoff in Ahmedabad, India. The airline confirmed that only one of the 242 people aboard survived. The victims included students at a medical college where the plane crashed.
Rescuers were combing the smoldering wreckage of an Air India passenger jet that crashed moments after takeoff Thursday in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, killing all but one of the 242 people aboard and dozens of others on the ground.
A senior police official in Ahmedabad, Vishakha Dabral, said early on Friday that 269 bodies had been taken to the main hospital there so far. Mr. Dabral said that the exact toll would emerge only after DNA testing.
The plane crashed into a medical college about a mile southwest of the city’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. As night fell and smoke hung in the air, heavy machines worked to untangle charred pieces of the aircraft at the crash site, and their operators treaded carefully to avoid all-out structural collapses.
Rescue personnel at the site, as well as doctors and security officials, suggested that as many as three dozen people who were caught in the path of the crashing plane had been killed on the ground.
Air India confirmed that only one passenger had survived the crash. His name is Viswash Kumar Ramesh, a brother, Nayan Ramesh, told The New York Times. Nayan said Viswash had been on vacation with another brother, Ajay, who was also on the plane.
“Everyone is completely devastated and just in shock,” Nayan said.
It was not immediately clear what had caused the plane, bound for London Gatwick Airport, to crash. Officials at the crash site said the aircraft most likely skidded after it came down, damaging buildings, before bursting into flames. Sections of the plane, including its tail, were left jutting out of the damaged school dining hall.
Video verified by The Times that was taken from the rooftop of a building about a half-mile south of Ahmedabad’s airport shows the jet descending steadily over a cluster of buildings before crashing. A large explosion is visible over the horizon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India said in a statement on social media that the crash was “heartbreaking beyond words.”
Here’s what else to know:
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Passengers: The airline said that the plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, had been carrying 169 Indian citizens, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.The authorities in Ahmedabad asked family members of passengers to submit DNA samples to help identify the bodies.
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Survivor: A brief video clip circulating on Indian news media shows a man with injuries on his face and blood on his white shirt limping toward an ambulance, saying he had come from “inside” the plane. News outlets in Britain identified him as Mr. Ramesh, who is a British citizen. The New York Times has not been able to confirm that the man in the video is Mr. Ramesh.
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Crash concerns: It could take months or years to determine the cause of the crash, but safety experts questioned why the plane appeared to descend so soon after it took off. The type of plane involved has been under scrutiny for years. Until Thursday, the Dreamliner had never been in a fatal crash, according to a review of accident data maintained by Cirium, an aviation data firm. Read more ›
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Britain’s reaction: The British government said it was working with the Indian authorities to “urgently establish the facts,” and had opened a hotline for British citizens in India seeking information about the crash. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that scenes of the crash were “devastating.”
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Air India: India’s flagship carrier has worked to improve its safety record after several dangerous episodes. In August 2020, an Air India Express flight overshot the runway in the Indian city of Kozhikode, killing 21 people. Read more ›
Source: www.nytimes.com