Black box found at site of deadly India plane crash

INVESTIGATORS recovered a black box recorder from the crash site yesterday of a London-bound passenger jet that ploughed into a residential area of India’s Ahmedabad city, killing at least 265 people on board and on the ground.

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The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dream-liner issued a mayday call shortly before it crashed around lunchtime on Thursday after lifting barely 100m from the ground. One man on board the plane, which was carrying 242 passengers and crew, miraculously survived Thursday's fiery crash, which left the tailpiece of the aircraft jutting out of the second floor of a hostel for medical staff from a nearby hospital.

“Initially, I too thought that I was about to die, but then I opened my eyes and realised that I was still alive,” survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British citizen, said from his hospital bed.

The nose and front wheel of Air India flight 171 landed on a canteen building where students were having lunch, witnesses said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Kanan Desai said that 265 bodies had been counted so far, which suggested that at least 24 people were killed on the ground. The toll could rise further as more body parts are recovered.