Rescue workers with sniffer dogs searched the disaster site Friday of a London-bound passenger plane that crashed into a residential area of Ahmedabad, India, killing at least 265 persons on board and on the ground.
One man on the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which was carrying 242 passengers and crew, amazingly survived Thursday’s horrific crash, which left the aircraft’s tailpiece protruding from the second story of a hostel for medical staff from a neighboring hospital.
Witnesses stated the nose and front wheel crashed on a cafeteria building where kids were having lunch.
In a statement released late Thursday, Home Minister Amit Shah stated that “families whose relatives are abroad have already been informed, and their DNA samples will be taken.” He added that the official death toll would not be announced until DNA testing was finished.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier called the incident “heartbreaking beyond words” before visiting the destroyed neighborhood where Air India flight 171 crashed down on Friday.
The airline said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian on board the flight bound for London’s Gatwick airport, as well as 12 crew members.
Air India said the sole survivor from the plane — a British national of Indian origin who local media named as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh — was being treated in hospital.
“He said, ‘I have no idea how I exited the plane'”, his brother Nayan Kumar Ramesh, 27, told Britain’s Press Association in Leicester.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes from the crash were “devastating”, while the country’s King Charles III said he was “desperately shocked”.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also on Thursday extended his condolences over the plane crash.
In Ahmedabad, disconsolate relatives of passengers gathered Friday at an emergency centre to give DNA samples so their loved ones could be identified.
The plane crashed less than a minute after takeoff, around lunchtime Thursday, after lifting barely 100 metres from the ground.
The plane issued a mayday call and “crashed immediately after takeoff”, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.
Ahmedabad, the main city in India’s Gujarat state, is home to around eight million people and its busy airport is surrounded by densely packed residential areas.
“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.
U.S. planemaker Boeing said it was in touch with Air India and stood “ready to support them” over the incident, which a source close to the case said was the first crash for a 787 Dreamliner.
The U.K. and U.S. air accident investigation agencies announced they were dispatching teams to support their Indian counterparts.
Tata Group, owners of Air India, offered financial aid of 10 million rupees ($117,000) to “the families of each person who has lost their life in this tragedy”, as well as funds to cover medical expenses of those injured.
