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More than 200 people have been killed when an Air India flight crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in western India, authorities say.
The Boeing 787 8 aircraft bound for London Gatwick Airport was carrying 242 passengers and crew when it came down on Thursday in a residential area, crashing into a medical college hostel outside the airport during lunch hour.
City Police Commissioner GS Malik told the news agency Reuters that 204 bodies had been recovered from the crash site.
Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground.
Later, Indian media reported that at least one person had survived the crash.
“The police found one survivor in seat 11A… One survivor has been found in the hospital and is under treatment,” the Indian news agency ANI quoted GS Malik as saying.
Footage showed smoke billowing from the crash site. Parts of the plane’s body were scattered around the building into which it crashed, photographs and videos from the area showed. The tail of the plane was stuck on top of the building.
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad’s airport, the aircraft gave a mayday call, signalling an emergency, but after that, there was no response, Reuters reported.
The aviation-tracking site Flightradar24 said the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, a wide-body, twin-engined plane that is one of the most modern passenger aircraft in service.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hails from the state of Gujarat, where the crash occurred, said he was “stunned and saddened” by the disaster.
