One person survives Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad that kills 241

– Air India flight crashes in Ahmedabad with more than 240 people on board

By Jillian Kestler-D’Amours and Nils Adler

• An Air India passenger plane bound for London crashed into a medical college in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad after takeoff, killing more than 240 people in one of India’s worst airline disasters in decades, officials said, with one survivor among the passengers.
• Air India confirmed that 241 of the 242 people on Air India Flight 171 died.
• Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer in Ahmedabad, said medical students who were in the college’s hostel when the Boeing 787 plane hit the building have also been killed.
• At Ahmedabad’s Civil Hospital, Dr Dhaval Gameti said he had examined the lone survivor of the crash brought in, whom he identified as Vishwashkumar Ramesh. “He was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body,” Gameti told The Associated Press. “But he seems to be out of danger.”
• The flight crashed shortly after takeoff from the Indian city. The airline said in a statement that the  carried 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian and seven Portuguese.
• Authorities in London confirmed that the plane was due to land at the city’s Gatwick airport at 6:25pm local time (17:25GMT).

There are indications that something went wrong ‘late in the takeoff roll’

Todd Curtis, the CEO of airsafe.com and a former safety engineer for Boeing, spoke to Al Jazeera about what he thinks happened to the Air India flight.

He said in the videos he has seen that the aircraft had a normal roll down the runway, but after takeoff, the climb stopped fairly soon, the aircraft levelled out, and then it slowly descended, so it was “under control” when it was descending.

He said he didn’t see “any flames or pieces falling off”, which, combined with the witness testimony that mentioned an explosion, led him to suspect that, sometime late in the takeoff roll, something went wrong, but they were too far down the runway to stop.

He said the landing gear appears to have stayed down throughout the time the plane was airborne.

Typically, within 30 seconds after taking off, the gear is either completely up or coming into the aircraft, so the fact that there was not even an attempt to raise the gear, from his perspective, suggests that “something seriously went wrong very early in the flight”.

Indian authorities turn to DNA testing to identify victims

Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer in Ahmedabad, says “most of the bodies have been charred beyond recognition” after the plane hit the medical college hostel, killing and injuring dozens of students.

Dhananjay Dwivedi, a civil official in Gujarat, the state where Ahmedabad is located, told reporters that DNA testing arrangements were being made.

Air India confirms 241 of 242 people aboard killed, only 1 survivor

“We regret to inform that, of the 242 aboard, there are 241 confirmed fatalities. The sole survivor is being treated in a hospital,” the airline has said in its latest update on the crash.

“The survivor is a British national of Indian origin,” it added.

The airline also confirmed that the plane crashed with 230 passengers and 12 crew members aboard.

“Air India offers its deepest condolences to the families of the deceased. Our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of all those affected, their families and loved ones.”

Credit: aljazeera.com