Plane bound for London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from India’s western city of Ahmedabad
News Desk/DNA
AHMEDABAD: All 242 people on board the Air India plane that crashed on Thursday in Ahmedabad have died, local newspaper Indian Express said, citing police.
The plane bound for London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from India’s western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday.
The plane was headed for Gatwick Airport, south of the British capital, Air India said, while police officers said it crashed in a residential area near the airport.
“The building on which it has crashed is a doctors’ hostel… we have cleared almost 70% to 80% of the area and will clear the rest soon,” a senior police officer told reporters.
India’s CNN News-18 TV channels said the plane crashed on top of the dining area of state-run BJ Medical College hostel, killing many medical students as well. It showed a visual of a portion of the aircraft perched atop the building.
Rescue workers said that at least 30 to 35 bodies had been recovered from the site and that more people were trapped.
The passengers included 217 adults, 11 children and two infants a source told Reuters. Of them, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian, Air India said.
It was the first crash for the Dreamliner, which began flying commercially in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. The plane that crashed on Thursday flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said.
