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AHMEDABAD, India (AP) \u2014 An Air India passenger plane bound for London crashed into a medical college in Ahmedabad after takeoff Thursday, killing at least 240 people in one of India\u2019s worst airline disasters in decades, officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad, said medical students who were in a college hostel when the plane hit the building are among the dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cMost of the bodies have been charred beyond recognition,\u201d she said.
Indian Home Minister Amit Shah confirmed that a single passenger survived the crash and he met him at the hospital. A doctor said he had examined the survivor, whom he identified as Vishwashkumar Ramesh.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cHe was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body,\u201d Dr. Dhaval Gameti told The Associated Press. \u201cBut he seems to be out of danger.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Black smoke billowed from the site where the plane crashed into a medical college hostel and burst into flames near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than 5 million and the capital of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s home state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, and adjacent multistory buildings with water. Many charred bodies lay on the ground and parts of the fuselage were scattered around the site. Indian army teams were assisting civil authorities to clear debris and help treat the injured.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Visuals also showed the tail cone of the aircraft with damaged stabiliser fins still attached to it lodged near the top of one of the buildings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In a social media post, Modi called the crash \u201cheartbreaking beyond words\u201d and said \u201cmy thoughts are with everyone affected.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIt appears there are no survivors in the plane crash,\u201d city police chief GS Malik told The Associated Press. Malik said the dead could include both passengers and those on the ground.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cExact figures on casualties are being ascertained,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Divyansh Singh, vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, a national body that represents resident doctors, said at least five students from the medical college were killed on the ground and 50 others were injured. Singh said some of them were in critical condition and many people are \u201cfeared buried in the debris.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Air India said the Gatwick Airport-bound flight was carrying 242 passengers and crew, with 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. The Boeing 787-8 crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar five minutes after taking off at 1:38 p.m. (08:08 GMT), Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of the directorate of civil aviation, told AP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The 787 Dreamliner is a wide-body, twin-engine plane. This is the first crash ever of a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Boeing said it was aware of the reports of the crash and was \u201cworking to gather more information.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Aviation consultant John M Cox, the CEO of Safety Operating Systems, told the AP from Los Angeles that while the first images of the crash were poor, it appeared the aircraft had its nose up and was not climbing, which is one of the things that investigators would look at.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cAt this point, it\u2019s very, very, very early, we don\u2019t know a whole lot,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the 787 has very extensive flight data monitoring \u2014 the parameters on the flight data recorder are in the thousands \u2014 so once we get that recorder, they\u2019ll be able to know pretty quickly what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The aircraft was introduced in 2009, and more than 1,000 have been delivered to dozens of airlines, according to the flightradar24 website.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Air India\u2019s chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, said at the moment \u201cour primary focus is on supporting all the affected people and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He said on X that the airline had set up an emergency centre and support team for families seeking information about those who were on the flight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cOur thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the crash \u201cdevastating\u201d and British Cabinet minister Lucy Powell said the government will provide \u201call the support that it can\u201d to those affected by the crash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThis is an unfolding story, and it will undoubtedly be causing a huge amount of worry and concern to the many, many families and communities here and those waiting for the arrival of their loved ones,\u201d she told lawmakers in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe send our deepest sympathy and thoughts to all those families, and the government will provide all the support that it can with those in India and those in this country as well,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Britain has very close ties with India. There were nearly 1.9 million people in the country of Indian descent, according to the 2021 UK census.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Condolences also poured in from King Charles III, who said he and his wife Queen Camilla were \u201cdesperately shocked\u201d by the crash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cOur special prayers and deepest possible sympathy are with the families and friends of all those affected by this appallingly tragic incident across so many nations, as they await news of their loved ones,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The last major passenger plane crash in India was in 2020, when an Air India Express Boeing-737 skidded off a hilltop runway in southern India, killing 21 people.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The worst air disaster in India was on Nov. 12, 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight collided midair with a Kazakhastan Airlines Flight near Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 on board the two planes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The crash comes days before the opening of the Paris Air Show, a major aviation expo where Boeing and European rival Airbus will showcase their aircraft and battle for jet orders from airline customers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Boeing has been in recovery mode for more than six years after Lion Air Flight 610<\/a>, a Boeing 737 Max 8, plunged into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. Five months later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302<\/a>, a Boeing 737 Max 8, crashed after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 157 passengers and crew members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Shares of Boeing Co. tumbled nearly 9% before trading opened in the U.S.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Roy reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writers Sheikh Saaliq in Srinagar, India, Pan Pylas, Kelvin Chan and Brian Melley in London and Annika Wolters, David Rising, Adam Schreck and Lorian Belanger in Bangkok contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n