Some 242 Indians, Britons, Canadians dead as Air India flight crashes

• All losses and no survivor!

Air India flight AI-171, bound for London’s Gatwick Airport, crashed shortly after takeoff near Ahmedabad airport on Thursday. The Boeing 787 aircraft belonging to Air India was carrying around 232 passengers and 10 crew members when it crashed.

Indian television news channels reported that the plane crashed on top of the dining area of a medical college hostel and visuals showed a portion of the aircraft atop the building. It was unclear if any medical students were present inside the building at the time of the crash.

“It appears there are no survivors in the plane crash,” Police Commissioner G.S. Malik told members of the press, adding that “as the plane has fallen in a residential area which also had offices, some locals would have also died.”

“Exact figures on casualties are being ascertained,” he said.

Indian Prime Minister Modi called the crash “heartbreaking beyond words,” declaring in social media post that “in this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected.”

The airline said the Gatwick Airport-bound flight was carrying 242 passengers and crew. Of those, Air India said there were 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.

Director General of the Directorate Of Civil Aviation, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai,  stated that Air India flight 171, a Boeing 787-8, crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar five minutes after taking off at 1:38 p.m. local time.

He said 244 people were on board and it was not immediately possible to reconcile the discrepancy with Air India’s numbers.

India’s Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu posted on X that all efforts were being made to ensure medical aid and relief support at the site.

The 787 Dreamliner is a widebody, twin-engine plane. This is the first crash ever of a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.

Boeing said it was aware of the reports of the crash and was “working to gather more information.”

The aircraft was introduced in 2009, and more than 1,000 have been delivered to dozens of airlines, according to the flightradar24 website.

Air India’s chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, said at the moment “our primary focus is on supporting all the affected people and their families.”

He said on X that the airline had set up an emergency center and support team for families seeking information about those who were on the flight.

“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event,” he said.

British Cabinet minister Lucy Powell said the government would provide “all the support that it can” to those affected by the crash.

“This is an unfolding story, and it will undoubtedly be causing a huge amount of worry and concern to the many, many families and communities here and those waiting for the arrival of their loved ones,” she told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

“We send our deepest sympathy and thoughts to all those families, and the government will provide all the support that it can with those in India and those in this country as well,” she added.

Britain has very close ties with India. There were nearly 1.9 million people in the country of Indian descent, according to the 2021 U.K. census.

The last major passenger plane crash in India was in 2020, when an Air India Express Boeing-737 skidded off a hilltop runway in southern India, killing 21 people.

The worst air disaster in India was on Nov. 12, 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight collided midair with a Kazakhastan Airlines Flight near Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 on board the two planes.

The crash comes days before the opening of the Paris Air Show, a major aviation expo where Boeing and European rival Airbus will showcase their aircraft and battle for jet orders from airline customers.

Boeing has been in recovery mode for more than six years after Lion Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 Max 8, plunged into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. Five months later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 Max 8, crashed after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 157 passengers and crew members.