Over 290 killed in Air India plane crash

Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London crashes into residential area in city of Ahmedabad soon after take-off

- 

NEW DELHI - More than 290 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London crashed soon after taking off from India's western city of Ahmedabad on June 12.

Air India Flight AI171 was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew. More than 290 people were killed, a police officer told Reuters. Ahmedabad's police chief commissioner G.S. Malik told the ANI news agency that emergency crews had found one survivor in seat 11A. He added that the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground.

The flight manifest shared earlier by the authorities said the passenger is Mr Viswashkumar Ramesh, who is British. He was reported by India's media as saying: "Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise, and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.

"When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me," he said. "Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital."

He said that his brother Ajay had been seated in a different row on the plane. "He was travelling with me and I can't find him any more. Please help me find him," he said.

Flight AI171 entered a slow descent shortly after taking off, with its landing gear still extended, before exploding into a huge fireball upon impact. It crashed on top of the dining area of the state-run B.J. Medical College hostel.

Eleven of the passengers on board the flight were children and two were infants, a report said, citing a source. Air India said that among the passengers on board, 169 were Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian.

Among those killed in the crash was former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party confirmed on X.