An Air India Boeing 787 bound for London with 242 people aboard, including 53 British citizens, crashed minutes after take-off in Gujarat on Thursday.
A passenger flight from India to Britain crashed on Thursday morning. At the time of publication no death toll or number of injured has been given, but the incident appears to have been very severe, with scattered wreckage spread across damaged and collapsed city buildings.
It is stated the aircraft was fully fuelled for a long-haul journey, which contributed to a large fire at the site of the crash.
Air India said in a statement that flight AI171, from Ahmedabad, the largest city in the state of Gujarat, to London Gatwick, was “involved in an accident today after take-off”. The airline said of their manifest that 242 passengers and crew were aboard and of them 169 were Indian nationals, 53 citizens of the United Kingdom, seven Portuguese citizens, and one Canadian.
The airline said “The injured are being taken to the nearest hospitals.”
The flight was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The Times of India reports that Captain Sumeet Sabharwal sounded the mayday by radio after take-off, and the jet had crashed into the Meghani Nagar neighbourhood of Ahmedabad within five minutes of leaving the ground. The paper published images of the tail-cone of the Boeing embedded in the roof of a building.
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement: “The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it. Have been in touch with Ministers and authorities who are working to assist those affected.”
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