At least 265 people were killed in the fatal plane crash in Gujarat's Ahmedabad on Thursday. The Air India AI171 flight took off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhai International Airport only to plummet minutes later and crash into a medical college complex and burst into a ball of fire.
According to Air India, 230 passengers were in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft including 169 Indians nationals, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.
The other 12 people on board were two pilots and 10 crew members.
Only one passenger identified as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh survived the crash. The Indian-origin British national was seated in 11A and largely remained unscathed after the miraculous escape. He was seen in TV footage walking around after the crash.
Ahmedabad Plane Crash: Top Points
- Deputy Commissioner of Police Kanan Desai told reporters that 265 bodies reached the city's civil hospital.
- Apart from 241 people onboard the plane, five MBBS, one postgraduate resident doctor, and a doctor's wife were among those killed. Another 60 students were injured after the twin-engine wide-body aircraft crashed in the city civil hospital and BJ Medical College outside the airport perimeter.
- On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached the plane crash site and took stock of the situation. He also visited Ahmedabad Civil Hospital to meet the injured people.
- To assist the families of victims aboard the plane, Air India has set up Friends & Relatives Assistance Centres at Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Gatwick airports, said the air carrier.
- Nationalist Congress Party MP Sunil Tatkare's relative was among those killed in the crash. Aparna Mahadik was the wife of a relative of Tatkare who worked as an air hostess while her husband worked as a pilot with Air India.
- Six teams of the National Disaster Response Force are at the site and working along with the state and central agencies to clear the wreckage, an NDRF personnel said.