AHMEDABAD, India: Police in the Indian city of Ahmedabad said they had collected 204 dead bodies after a London-bound Air India passenger plane carrying 242 people crashed into residential buildings shortly after take-off on Thursday.
According to city police Commissioner GS Malik, at least 41 people have been injured and are receiving medical treatment, with rescue operations ongoing at the crash site.
“We have found 204 bodies,” Commissioner Malik told AFP, adding that 41 injured people were “under treatment”.
The dead included those from the plane crash and from buildings into which the plane smashed. “Rescue work is ongoing,” he said.
Firefighters are trying to douse the smouldering wreckage after the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner smashed into a building.
“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heart-breaking beyond words,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after Air India’s flight 171 crashed.
City police commissioner GS Malik said there “appears to be no survivor in the crash”.
“And since the airplane has fallen on an area which was residential and had some offices, there are more casualties as well,” he added.
India’s civil aviation authority said there were 242 people aboard, including two pilots and 10 cabin crew.
Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian on board the flight bound for London Gatwick.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes from the crash were “devastating”, in a statement addressing passengers and their families “at this deeply distressing time.”
The plane issued a mayday call and “crashed immediately after take-off” outside the airport perimeter, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.
Ahmedabad, the main city of India’s Gujarat state, is home to around eight million people, and the busy airport is surrounded by densely packed residential areas.
A photograph published by India’s Central Industrial Security Force, a national security agency, showed the back of the plane rammed into a building.
The plane came down in an area between the Ahmedabad civil hospital and the city’s Ghoda Camp neighbourhood.
Devastating
Aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu directed “all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action.”
“Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site,” he added.
The airport was shut with all flights “suspended until further notice”, the operator said.
US planemaker Boeing said it was “working to gather more information” on the incident which a source close to the case said was the first crash for a 787 Dreamliner.
Air India ordered 100 more Airbus planes last year after a giant contract in 2023 for 470 aircraft — 250 Airbus and 220 Boeing.
The airline’s chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, said an emergency centre has been activated and a support team set up for families seeking information.
“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event,” he said.
India has suffered a series of fatal air crashes, including a 1996 disaster when two jets collided mid-air over New Delhi, killing nearly 350 people.
In 2010 an Air India Express jet crashed and burst into flames at Mangalore airport in southwest India, killing 158 of the 166 passengers and crew on board. – Agencies
