LONDON − 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.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national, appears to be the sole survivor.
G.S. Malik, Ahmedabad’s police chief, told Indian news media that Ramesh may have survived what no one else did. However, local officials have not yet definitively concluded that everyone aboard the jet was killed.
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.
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.
Malik told Reuters that 204 bodies had been recovered from the crash site. He 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.”
