Many people have been killed when an Air India flight bound for London with 242 people on board crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in western India, officials say.
The airline said the passengers on board the Boeing 787-8 aircraft, which was headed to London Gatwick Airport, were 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and a Canadian. There were also 10 crew members and two pilots on Thursday’s flight.
Indian Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said there had been fatalities, writing in a post on X in Hindi that “the news of many people being killed in the plane crash” was “extremely sad”.
The plane crashed into a hostel for doctors, the Reuters news agency reported, quoting a senior police officer.
Footage showed smoke billowing from the crash site near the airport. Rescue workers quoted by Reuters said at least 30 bodies had been recovered.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hails from the state of Gujarat, where the crash occurred, said he was “stunned and saddened” by the disaster.
“It is heartbreaking beyond words,” Modi posted on X. “In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”
‘Shocked and devastated’
Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said he was “shocked and devastated” about the crash and his “thoughts and prayers are with all those on board and their families”.
“I am personally monitoring the situation and have directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action,” he said in a statement posted to X.
“Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement that the scenes at the crash site of the plane with dozens of British nationals on board were “devastating”.
The United Kingdom was working with Indian authorities to urgently establish the facts around the crash and to support those affected, its Foreign Office said in a statement.
Mayday
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad’s airport, the aircraft gave a “mayday” call, signalling an emergency, but after that, there was no response, Reuters reported.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport said it had suspended all flight operations with immediate effect.
The aviation-tracking site Flightradar24 said the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, a wide-body, twin-engined plane that is one of the most modern passenger aircraft in service.
This is the first crash ever of a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.
Alex Macheras, an aviation analyst, told Al Jazeera that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner has a good safety record.
“The 787 has been in service for 15 years. This is a mid- to long-haul passenger aircraft, one of the latest from Boeing in terms of the development and the introduction of carbon-fibre aircraft,” he said.
“In fact, in its 15 years of commercial service globally, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has never been involved in a crash or a hull loss or a fatal accident.”
The last fatal plane crash in India was in 2020 and involved an aircraft from Air India Express, the carrier’s low-cost arm. Twenty-one people were killed when the aircraft overshot a runway at Kozhikode International Airport in southern India.
Source: Al Jazeera
