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On board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, traveling to Gatwick Airport just south of London, there were 242 passengers and crew, of which only one individual survived when the plane crashed into a medical college hostel on Thursday night AEST.
The initial death count was overestimated at 294, but has since been adjusted to over 240. At this time, it is not certain how many of those lost were on the plane versus on the ground.
Flight information from Ahmedabad Airport indicated the aircraft took off at 1:39 p.m. It signaled a Mayday alert, indicating an emergency, but subsequent communication from the plane ceased. Source: SBS News
‘It all happened so quickly’
“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me,” he said. “Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”
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.
Plane crashed just after take off
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad Airport, the aircraft departed at 1:39 pm. It gave a Mayday call, signalling an emergency, but thereafter there was no response from the aircraft.
Officials inspect the site of a plane crash near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Source: AAP / Rajat Gupta/EPA
India’s Civil Aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said that a formal investigation has been initiated by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
Britain was also working with Indian authorities to establish the facts around the crash and to provide support to those involved, the country’s foreign office said.
