Over 200 dead in Air India crash, official says
More than 200 people were killed when an Air India flight crashed shortly after takeoff in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, the city’s police commissioner said. The plane, carrying 242 passengers and crew members, crashed into a medical college about 3 1/2 miles southwest of the city’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
The commissioner, G.S. Malik, said emergency crews had recovered 204 bodies from the crash site, 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 shows the Air India jet descending steadily over a cluster of buildings before crashing. A large explosion is visible over the horizon.
Plumes of smoke billowed from the wreckage as firefighters doused charred residential buildings, according to footage and photos of the crash site. Intact sections of the plane, including the plane’s tail, appeared to hang out of a damaged building.
The airline said 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, Malik said, a number that could include both passengers and people on the ground.
The plane departed at 1:38 p.m. from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, which temporarily shut down after the crash. It had been scheduled to land at Gatwick at 6:25 p.m., the airport said.
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.”
The fate of 38 people onboard remained unclear, and officials left open the possibility that some had survived. Campbell Wilson, Air India’s CEO, said that “injured passengers” had been taken to the hospital. The authorities in Ahmedabad asked family members of passengers to submit DNA samples to help identify the bodies.
It could take months or years to determine the cause of the crash, but the type of plane involved, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, has been under scrutiny for years. Until Thursday, the Dreamliner had never been in a fatal crash, according to a review of accident data maintained by Cirium, an aviation data firm.
The British government said it was working with Indian authorities to “urgently establish the facts,” and opened a hotline for British citizens in India seeking information about the crash. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that scenes of the crash were “devastating” and that he was being updated on the situation.
The airline, India’s flagship carrier, has worked to improve its safety record after several dangerous incidents. In August 2020, an Air India Express flight overshot the runway in the city of Kozhikode, killing 21 people.