Indian passenger aircraft with 242 passengers crashed, now 30 bodies salvaged

A passenger plane from Air India with at least 242 passengers crashed on Thursday near the airport of the Indian city of Ahmedabad, in the northwest of the country. Several media report this in India such as the newspaper The Hindu. The aircraft, flight AI 171, was en route to London. It is not yet known how many victims have fallen on the plane or on the ground. The Indian Minister of Health said that « many people » died.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), there were at least 230 passengers, two pilots and ten cabin crew members on board when the aircraft crashed. On tracking website Flighttradar24 you can see that it is a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with a capacity of approximately three hundred passengers.

The plane would crash just after taking off in the nearby residential area, Meghani Nagar. Large black clouds of smoke can be seen on images. In return for The Hindu The fire brigade said the plane caught fire after it crashed. On X circulates a video in which you can see how the plane crashes and a large explosion is created. NRC could not immediately verify these images.

Identity of occupants

According to The Hindu The device gave an emergency call to air traffic control, but in turn the aircraft personnel did not respond to outside calls.

Air India, the national airline, has in A message on X confirmed that the plane was involved « in an accident » after departure. « The flight, which left Ahmedabad at 1.38 pm, had a total of 242 passengers and crew members on board the Boeing 787-8. » Society also shares something about the identity of the passengers: « 169 of them had 169 the Indian nationality, 53 the British, 1 the Canadian and 7 the Portuguese nationality, » said Air India. « The wounded are taken to the nearest hospitals, » said the message, which does not specify how many wounded it is.

Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, the Indian minsister of civil aviation, says in a message on x « Deep shocked » after the news about the crash. « Emergency services are on site and the required assistance is quickly provided, » said the minister. The Indian airport has since been closed and all air traffic has been stopped there.