Firefighters work on the website of an airplane that crashed in India’s northwestern metropolis of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state on Thursday.
Ajit Solanki/AP
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Ajit Solanki/AP
MUMBAI, India — An Air India flight carrying 242 individuals together with 12 crew certain for London crashed shortly after departure in India’s northwestern metropolis of Ahmedabad right this moment. The Indian well being minister, Jagat Prakash Nada, stated many individuals have been killed, however supplied no additional data. Authorities say one passenger has survived the crash.
Ahmedabad’s police commissioner G.S. Malik confirmed in a press release to NPR that 204 our bodies had been recovered. Because the aircraft crashed right into a residential a part of the town, residents could also be among the many lifeless. A authorities official confirmed that Vijay Rupani, a former chief minister of India’s Gujarat state, was killed within the crash.
Malik additionally confirmed {that a} male passenger had survived the crash and stated he was being handled in a neighborhood hospital. That passenger is a British nationwide, the BBC reported.
Footage posted by the Press Belief of India confirmed the aircraft sinking over a residential quarter after which the sound of a blast, and a ball of fireplace. The Press Belief shared photographs of medics dashing casualties on stretchers. The aircraft crashed simply 5 minutes after taking off, in response to Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director basic of the directorate of civil aviation, who spoke to The Related Press.
The Boeing 787 was certain for London’s Gatwick Airport. Air India stated on X that the flight was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian and 7 Portuguese. A number of movies shared by residents appeared to indicate charred our bodies and physique components on the website of the crash.
Individuals watch smoke rising after an airplane crashed in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state, India, on Thursday.
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Mohan Nakum/Mohan Nakum
Casualties may additionally embody individuals impacted after the aircraft, or components of the aircraft, smashed into the cafeteria of a hostel for college kids of the BJ Medical School in Ahmedabad, in response to a hospital official who declined to be named as a result of she was not approved to talk to the media. She stated the hospital was taking in casualties. India’s Federation of All India Medical Affiliation (FAIMA) stated on X that fifty medical college students had been admitted to the hospital, at the very least 4 college students have been lacking and at the very least two have been in vital situation.
A physician on the trauma middle the place casualties have been being handled stated to date, 90 individuals had been purchased in. She additionally requested anonymity as a result of she wasn’t approved to talk to the media. Reuters reported that at the very least 30 our bodies had been recovered from a constructing on the website of the aircraft crash.
The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi known as the crash a “tragedy” that had “surprised and saddened us.”
“It’s heartbreaking past phrases. On this unhappy hour, my ideas are with everybody affected by it,” he wrote on X.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chairman of the Tata Group that operates Air India, stated in a press release that flight AI171 was concerned in a “tragic incident.” He stated the conglomerate was helping the emergency response groups and offering care and help to these affected. The airport the place the flight departed from has suspended operations.
That is the primary crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, in response to the Aviation Security Community. The plane gave a “Mayday” name, signaling an emergency earlier than it crashed. A Boeing spokesman instructed The Related Press that it was conscious of the reviews of the crash and was “working to collect extra data.” The 787 was launched in 2009 and greater than 1,000 are working globally, in response to Boeing.
The Nationwide Transportation Security Board stated Thursday morning on X that it will likely be main a staff of U.S. investigators going to India to help within the crash investigation.
The New York Instances reported in April 2024 that the Federal Aviation Administration was investigating claims made by a whistleblower – a Boeing engineer – who claimed that sections of the 787 Dreamliner have been improperly fixed collectively and will break aside after hundreds of journeys. On the time, Boeing instructed the paper that it had “decided that this isn’t an instantaneous security of flight concern.”
Individuals stand round particles on the website of an airplane that crashed in India’s northwestern metropolis of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state on Thursday.
Ajit Solanki/AP
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Ajit Solanki/AP
The final main aircraft crash in India was in 2020, when a Boeing 737 skidded off a hilltop runway, killing 21 individuals.
The crash provides to Boeing’s woes — its repute has been battered after two lethal accidents involving its 737 Max 8; one in 2019 when an Ethiopian Airways flight crashed, killing all 149 individuals aboard, and in October 2018, when a Lion Air flight crashed within the sea close to the Indonesian capital Jakarta, killing all 189 passengers onboard.
The crash comes simply days forward of the Paris Air Present, the place Boeing is anticipated to host a big pavilion.
Raksha Kumar contributed to this story from Mumbai, India.
