More than 290 people died yesterday when an Air India plane bound for London with 242 passengers on board crashed minutes after taking off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, authorities said, calling it the worst air disaster in a decade.
Among the dead were people on the ground, as the plane, flying to Gatwick Airport, south of the British capital, crashed into a medical college dormitory at lunchtime.
Police said at least one passenger survived, and he told Indian media that he heard a loud bang shortly after takeoff.
"Around 294 people have died. Some of them were students because the plane crashed into the building where they were staying," Vidhi Chaudhary, a senior police official in the state, told Reuters.
Passenger from seat 11A
She said police found one survivor sitting in seat 11A, next to the emergency exit. "He was near the emergency exit and managed to escape by jumping through that door," Chaudhary said.
"Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud bang and then the plane crashed," 11-year-old Ramesh Vishwaskumar told the Hindustan Times, who posted his ticket for seat XNUMXA online.
"It all happened so fast," he told the newspaper from his hospital bed.
“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I got up and started running. Parts of the plane were all around me,” he said. “Someone grabbed me, put me in an ambulance and took me to the hospital.”
He said he had “impact injuries,” including bruises on his chest, eyes and feet, but was otherwise conscious and alert.
He also said that his brother Ajay was sitting in the second row of the plane. "He was traveling with me and I can't find him anymore. Please help me find him," he said.
Police said Vishwaskumar was the only known survivor so far, but added that rescue operations were still ongoing.
"There is a possibility that among the injured being treated in hospital there are more survivors from the plane," Chaudari said.
Ahmedabad police chief GS Malik said the bodies recovered could include passengers and people who died on the ground. Among the dead was Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, whose capital is Ahmedabad.
Relatives have been asked to provide DNA samples to identify the bodies of the victims, state health secretary Dhananjay Dwivedi told reporters.
Parts of the plane's fuselage were scattered around the smoldering building the plane had crashed into. The plane's tail remained stuck on top of the building.
The passengers included 217 adults, 11 children and two infants, a source told Reuters. Air India said 169 of the passengers were Indian nationals, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.
The air traffic monitoring website "Flightradar24" announced that the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, one of the most modern passenger aircraft in use.
This is the first accident of the "droneliner", which entered commercial service in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. The plane that crashed first flew in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 reported.
Yesterday's accident occurred shortly after takeoff. Television channels showed footage of the plane taking off over a residential area, then disappearing from the screen, and then a huge cloud of flames rising behind the houses.
"My daughter-in-law was travelling to London. Within an hour, I got the news that the plane had crashed," Ponam Patel, a relative of one of the passengers, told news agency ANI outside a government hospital in Ahmedabad.
Residents told AFP what they found after the accident. "When we arrived at the scene, there were several bodies lying around and firefighters were putting out the fire. Many of the bodies were burned," said one resident.
Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “We saw people in the building jumping from the second and third floors to save themselves. The plane was on fire. We were helping people out of the building and taking the injured to the hospital.”
Ramila, the mother of a medical college student, told ANI that her son had gone to the hostel for lunch when the plane crashed. "My son is safe, I have spoken to him. He jumped from the second floor and sustained some injuries," she said.
Emergency call immediately after takeoff
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad airport, the plane took off at 13.39:XNUMX p.m. local time. It sent a distress call, a mayday, indicating an emergency, but there was no response from the aircraft after that.
Plane crashes statistically most often occur during takeoff or landing, but experts said there was no obvious explanation for the plane crash in this case. Weather conditions were favorable.
American aviation safety consultant Anthony Brickhouse said that one of the worrying indicators in the video footage of the plane was that the landing gear was lowered during the flight phase when it should normally have been raised.
"If you didn't know what was happening, you would think the plane was getting ready to land on the runway," said Brikhaus.
John M. Cox, also a consultant and director of the company "Safety Operating Systems", told the AP agency from Los Angeles that although the initial footage of the accident is of poor quality, it appears that the plane had its nose up but was not taking off, which is one of the things investigators will pay attention to.
"It's very, very early at this point. We don't know much," he said. "But the Boeing 787 has a very detailed flight data monitoring system, the parameters recorded in the flight recorder are in the thousands, so when they get to that recorder, they will be able to determine very quickly what exactly happened."
Boeing CEO John Ortberg said he spoke with Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran to offer his full support following the Ahmedabad crash. "The Boeing team stands ready to provide all necessary assistance to the investigation led by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch of India (AAIB)," Ortberg said.
Boeing (BA.N) shares fell 5% as the crash dealt a major blow to the planemaker as its new chief executive tries to rebuild confidence after a series of safety and production problems.
Aircraft engine manufacturer GE Aerospace announced that it will form a team to travel to India and analyze cockpit data, Indian television channel CNBC TV18 reported.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it would lead a team of American investigators traveling to India to help investigate the accident.
The UK is working with Indian authorities to urgently establish the facts of the plane crash and provide support to those involved, the British Foreign Office said.
“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has shocked and saddened us,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X Network. “The pain is indescribable.” Gujarat is Prime Minister Modi’s home state.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the footage from the scene of the accident was “devastating.” A Buckingham Palace spokesman said King Charles was also being kept regularly informed of the situation.
US President Donald Trump also spoke out about the Ahmedabad tragedy, describing it as “one of the worst accidents in aviation history.” Speaking at the White House, Trump said he had offered Indian authorities “everything we can do” after the “terrible accident.”
Ahmedabad airport, which was closed immediately after the crash, reopened yesterday with limited flights. The airport is operated by Indian conglomerate Adani Group.
The last fatal plane crash in India, the world's third-largest and fastest-growing aviation market, occurred in 2020 and involved Air India Express, the low-cost subsidiary of Air India.
Then, a Boeing 737 operated by that airline skidded off a runway in southern India, skidded and crashed into a valley, its nose hitting the ground. 21 people were killed.
Formerly state-owned, Air India was acquired by the Indian conglomerate Tata Group in 2022, which merged it with Vistara in 2024, a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines.
The Tata Group conglomerate announced that it would pay 10 million rupees (about 100 euros) to the families of those killed in the crash. The company, as reported by the Guardian, also announced that it would cover the medical expenses of the injured and provide support in the "reconstruction" of the medical college where the plane crashed.
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