Flames and smoke in aftermath of crashed India passenger jet
AHMEDABAD: Thick black plumes of acrid smoke towered high above India's Ahmedabad airport on Thursday after a London-bound passenger jet with 242 people aboard crashed shortly after takeoff. Police said there appeared to be no survivors, with the plane smashing into a residential area. Several videos posted on the social media showed an aircraft rapidly losing altitude — with its nose up — before it hit a building and exploded into an orange ball of fire. Authorities said it went down outside the airport perimeter, in a crowded residential area while a reporter in the city said the plane crashed between a hospital and the city's Ghoda Camp neighbourhood.
A medic described how the burning plane had smashed into a residential block that is home to medical students and young doctors. "One half of the plane crashed into the residential building where doctors lived with their families," said Krishna, a doctor who gave only one name, adding he saw "about 15-20 burnt bodies" in the wreckage and debris.
It was not clear whether the dead he had seen had been killed on board the plane, or had been in the building the aircraft ploughed into. "The nose and front wheel landed on the canteen building where students were having lunch," he said, adding he and colleagues had "rescued some 15 students from the building and sent them to hospital". "When we reached the spot there were several bodies lying around and firefighters were dousing the flames," resident Poonam Patni said. "Many of the bodies were burned", she added.
Another resident, who declined to be named, said: "We saw people from the building jumping from the second and third floor to save themselves. The plane was in flames. "We helped people get out of the building and sent the injured to the hospital." Air India's flight 171 — a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London's Gatwick Airport, crashed shortly after takeoff around 1:40 pm, officials said. The passengers included 169 Indian nationals, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian. Two pilots and 10 cabin crew were also aboard.
Firefighters work at the site where Air India Flight 171 crashed. — AFP
At the crash site, firefighters could be seen trying to control flames on the burning plane debris that also charred trees. One video, from social media but posted by the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency, showed what appeared to be a chunk of fuselage — larger than a car — that had smashed onto the roof of a multi-storey building.
Photographs released by India's Central Industrial Security Force, a paramilitary police force, showed a large chunk of the plane that had smashed through the brick and concrete wall of a building. "I was at home when we heard a massive sound," one Ahmedabad resident told PTI. "When we went out to see what had happened, there was a layer of thick smoke in the air. When we came here, dead bodies and debris from the crashed aircraft were scattered all over." Outside Ahmedabad airport, a woman wailing inconsolably in grief said that five of her relatives had been aboard the plane.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday he was shocked by the crash of a London-bound passenger plane with 242 people on board and offered his support to those affected.
"The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words," Modi said in a message posted on social media site X after the Air India flight crashed near the city in western India. "In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it," he said, adding he had "been in touch with ministers and authorities who are working to assist those affected". — AFP
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