Ahmedabad: In a tragic incident, 241 people on board the Air India flight died after the plane crashed near Ahmedabad airport on Thursday. One person survived the incident. Among those who lost their lives included Former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.
A video has gone viral in which the flight Boeing 787 Dreamliner (AI171) can be seen taking off with 242 people on board, which included 10 crew members and 2 pilots. The flight took off at 1:38 PM from the airport in London.
Govt yet to confirm the total number of casualties
However, shortly after the plane crashed near a locality, leading to the fear of more casualties. The government is yet to confirm the total number of people dying in the incident. Among those in the aircraft were 169 Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian.
Meanwhile, the authorities have intensified their search for the aircraft’s black box — the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, to find out what exactly happened during the last moments. The plane had just climbed nearly 600-800 feet before falling to the ground.
“The aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from Runway 23. It gave a MAYDAY Call to ATC, but thereafter no response was given by the aircraft to the calls made by ATC,” the statement issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.
Visuals from the incident show that bodies are being pulled out from the damaged flight. Many of them were also shifted to a hospital for treatment. As per eyewitnesses, the fire was so intense that it led to several multi-story buildings being burnt and cars also being damaged.
