Yashee Sharma & Jorge Bianco
An Air India plane headed for London has crashed with more than 240 people on board, including 61 foreign nationals, in the north-west Indian city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat state.
The city police commissioner said it “appears there are no survivors” after the plane crashed into a medical college hostel and burst into flames near the airport but later told local media one man survived.
“Some locals would have also died,” Commissioner GS Malik told The Associated Press, adding that exact figures were still be ascertained.
Air India said flight 171 departed Ahmedabad International Airport at 1.38pm local time (6.08pm AEST) bound for London’s Gatwick Airport and crashed shortly after take-off. An airline spokesperson said the aircraft was carrying 242 passengers and crew members, including 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.
“The injured are being taken to the nearest hospitals,” an Air India spokesperson said.
Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, and adjacent multi-storey buildings with water. Charred bodies lay on the ground.
Divyansh Singh, vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, a national body that represents resident doctors, said at least five students from the medical college were killed on the ground and 50 others were injured. Singh said some of them were in critical condition and many people are “feared buried in the debris”.
Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of the directorate of civil aviation, told The Associated Press that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar five minutes after take-off.
He said 244 people were on board and it was not immediately possible to reconcile the discrepancy with Air India’s numbers.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is from Gujarat, called the crash “heartbreaking beyond words”. “In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected,” he said in a social media post.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the news was “absolutely devastating”. “In this time of tragedy, Australia’s thoughts are with everyone affected,” he said on social media.
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