All 242 people on board a London-bound passenger plane that crashed in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday are believed to be dead.
An AFP journalist saw people recovering bodies and firefighters trying to douse the smouldering wreckage after the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner smashed into buildings housing doctors and their families during lunchtime.
“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after Air India’s flight 171 crashed after takeoff.City Police Commissioner GS Malik told AFP there “appears to be no survivor in the crash”.Rescue teams supported by the military had “found 204 bodies”, he said, with people aboard the plane and those on the ground among the dead.
The AFP journalist saw a section of the plane lying on the ground and a building ablaze, with thick black smoke billowing into the air.
“One half of the plane crashed into the residential building where doctors lived with their families,” said Krishna, a doctor who did not give his full name.
“The nose and front wheel landed on the canteen building where students were having lunch,” he said.
Krishna said he saw “about 15 to 20 burnt bodies”, while he and his colleagues rescued around 15 students.
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.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes from the crash were “devastating”, while the country’s King Charles III said he was “desperately shocked”.
The plane issued a mayday call and “crashed immediately after takeoff” 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.
“When we reached the spot, there were several bodies lying around and firefighters were dousing the flames,” resident Poonam Patni told AFP.
