A London-bound Air India passenger plane with more than 200 people on board crashed shortly after taking off from an airport in India’s western city of Ahmedabad, the airline and police officials said June 12.
The number of fatalities has not been confirmed but G.S. Malik, police commissioner for Ahmedabad, told The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse news agencies it “appears there are no survivors.”
Malik added that there were also many injuries at the crash site.
Authorities have yet to release any information about what may have caused the crash.
The plane was headed to London’s Gatwick airport, Air India said. A police statement said it crashed in a civilian area near the airport.
Early reports suggested the plane may have come down on a hostel housing doctors.
“We are ascertaining the details and will share further updates,” Air India said in a statement.
Air India plane crash: What we know so far about passengers, where they were going
According to local media, the crash occurred as the aircraft was taking off from Ahmedabad airport, which is about 600 miles southwest of India’s capital, New Delhi.
TV visuals showed people being moved in stretchers and taken away in ambulances. Thick black smoke rose into the sky near the airport.
City police chief G.S. Malik told Reuters that 204 bodies had been recovered from the crash site.
There were no reports of survivors being found, and the Indian Express newspaper said all 242 on board had perished, citing police.
Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground.
Relatives had been asked to give DNA samples to identify the dead, state health secretary Dhananjay Dwivedi said.
The Boeing 787-8 aircraft was carrying 242 passengers and crew members.
Air India said of these, 169 were Indian nationals; 53 were British; 7 were Portuguese; and one was Canadian.
No Americans were reported on board.
“I was in my office when the plane crashed and there was a loud thud,” Darshna Vaghela, a local politician, told reporters at the scene, according to the BBC. “We rescued many doctors from their flats.”
Meanwhile, Ahmedabad police have said there was at least one survivor from the flight.
According to media reports, the sole survivor of the crash was 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British-Indian, who lives in London and was in Ahmedabad visiting family.
He said he had lived in London for the past 20 years and had travelled to India with his brother who was also on the plane
“Thirty seconds after take off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,” said Ramesh, speaking to the Hindustan Times.
He said he “impact injuries”, including bruising on his chest, eyes and feet but was otherwise lucid and conscious.
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