The London-bound Boeing Dreamliner went down moments after takeoff in Ahmedabad, India, with 242 people aboard. It was unclear if anyone survived. The victims included students at a medical college where the plane crashed.
WHAT WE KNOW:
Rescuers were combing the smoldering wreckage of an Air India passenger jet that crashed moments after takeoff Thursday in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, searching for survivors after an official said that more than 200 had died and dozens of people aboard remained unaccounted for.
The plane, carrying 242 passengers and crew members, crashed into a medical college about a mile southwest of the city’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. As night fell and smoke hung in the air, heavy machines worked to untangle charred pieces of the aircraft at the crash site, where footage and photos showed sections of the plane, including its tail, appearing to hang out of a damaged building.
The city’s police commissioner, G.S. Malik, said that emergency crews had recovered 204 bodies, and he and airline officials did not rule out the possibility of survivors. Among those killed were at least five students at the medical college, where the plane hit a dining facility as students were having lunch, according to Minakshi Parikh, the dean of the college.
It was not immediately clear what had caused the plane, bound for London Gatwick Airport, to crash. Video verified by The New York Times that was taken from the rooftop of a building about a half-mile south of Ahmedabad’s airport showed the Air India jet descending steadily over a cluster of buildings before crashing. A large explosion is visible over the horizon.
The airline said that the plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was carrying 169 Indian citizens, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. At least 41 people were injured and receiving treatment, Commissioner Malik said, a number that could include both passengers and people on the ground.
The plane departed at 1:38 p.m. from the airport, which temporarily shut down after the crash, and had been scheduled to land at Gatwick at 6:25 p.m. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India said the crash was “heartbreaking beyond words” in a statement on social media. “In this sad hour,” he added, “my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”
