A London-bound plane carrying 242 people crashed in Ahmedabad, India, shortly after takeoff on Thursday. Air India flight 171 crashed into B.J. Medical College, where early reports suggest dozens more have been killed on the ground, according to the New Indian Express. There was one survivor from the plane, according to the BBC.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh survived the crash, according to the Hindustan Times and the BBC, which cites Ahmedabad’s police chief GS Malik as a source. The man, a 40-year-old British national, is quoted as saying, “30 seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly. When I got up, there were bodies all around me.”
A photo purporting to show the survivor’s Air India plane ticket, seat 11A, has gone viral. Local officials initially reported that no passengers aboard the Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 had survived. But video from the scene shows one man walking away.
First responders on the ground have reportedly recovered 204 bodies, according to the BBC. But that leaves 38 people unaccounted for, though Ahmedabad’s police chief, GS Malik, told the British broadcaster that 41 people were injured. Part of the confusion seems to be the fact that a number of people had been killed and injured on the ground when the plane crashed into the medical college.
The majority of the passengers on the flight were Indian nationals, with 53 British nationals, 7 Portuguese nationals, and 1 Canadian national, according to Australia’s ABC News.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, but there’s considerable confusion about what may have led to the accident. Former NTSB crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti noted to the Associated Press that video from near the airport doesn’t show any visible smoke or fire, which suggests it wasn’t caused by an airstrike. If one of the engines failed, there would be a second engine to fly the plane, and two engines failing at the same time would be extremely rare.
Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 reports that the flight used Runway 23 at Ahmedabad Airport, which is 11,499 feet long. There was initial speculation that the plane may have made a miscalculation and only used part of the runway, causing the crash. But FlightRadar24 says the plane backtracked to the end of the runway before utilizing the entire thing, something that’s still in dispute on social media.
FlightRadar24 also reports the plane reached a maximum altitude of 625 feet before descending rapidly.
One former politician is among the dead, according to the Associated Press. Vijay Rupani was the chief minister in the Indian state of Gujarat and belonged to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is currently led by India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
Thursday’s crash is the first time a Boeing Dreamliner has been involved in a major accident. Boeing shares have fallen over 4%.
