Investigators on Friday recovered the flight data recorder from the crash site of a London-bound Air India flight that plummeted into a residential zone in Ahmedabad, a city in western India, leaving at least 265 people dead, including those on the aircraft and residents on the ground.
The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, headed for London’s Gatwick Airport, had issued a distress signal shortly after takeoff, managing to reach only about 100 meters (330 feet) before crashing midday Thursday. Among the 242 people aboard—including crew—one man miraculously survived the inferno that followed.
The aircraft’s tail became lodged in the second story of a hostel housing medical personnel from a nearby hospital. Amid the wreckage and despair, a lone survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British citizen, recounted his escape.
Speaking from his hospital bed to national broadcaster DD News, he said, “Initially, I too thought that I was about to die, but then I opened my eyes and realised that I was still alive.”
Witnesses said the aircraft’s nose and landing gear smashed into a canteen building where students had gathered for lunch, instantly turning the site into a disaster zone.
Local police official Kanan Desai confirmed that 265 bodies had been counted, indicating that at least 24 of the victims were people on the ground. Authorities warned that the number could increase as body parts continued to be recovered.
India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday that the official death toll would be determined after DNA tests were completed. He noted that DNA samples would also be collected from the families of victims residing abroad.
Air India confirmed that the plane was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 British citizens, seven Portuguese nationals, one Canadian, and 12 crew members. The aircraft, part of the Dreamliner series, had not previously been involved in a crash, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site on Friday and later appeared at the hospital bedside of the survivor, Ramesh, who suffered multiple burns and injuries. Ramesh recalled the horrifying moments leading up to the crash. “Everything happened in front of me, and even I couldn’t believe how I managed to come out alive from that,” he said. “Within a minute after takeoff, suddenly… it felt like something got stuck… I realised something had happened, and then suddenly the plane’s green and white lights turned on.”
As the nation grieved, relatives of the passengers gathered at an emergency center in Ahmedabad to provide DNA samples for victim identification. Among them was Ashfaque Nanabawa, 40, searching for his cousin Akeel, who had boarded the plane with his wife and young daughter. “He called us and he said, ‘I am in the plane and I have boarded safely and everything was okay’. That was his last call,” Nanabawa shared.
Others were too overwhelmed to speak. One grieving woman, wiping tears from her eyes, said her daughter had yet to be informed of her husband’s death. “My daughter doesn’t know that he’s no more. I can’t break the news to her, can someone else do that please?”
Scenes from the crash site painted a grim picture. Bharat Solanki, 51, who rushed to the site from a nearby fuel station, described “bodies everywhere.” He added, “The bodies were totally burnt. It was like coal.”
Ahmedabad, a bustling metropolis with nearly eight million residents, is densely populated, and its airport is surrounded by residential buildings. According to one local doctor identified only as Krishna, “One-half of the plane crashed into the residential building where doctors lived with their families.”
US aircraft manufacturer Boeing said it was in communication with Air India and was prepared to provide full support during the investigation. Both the United States and the United Kingdom have dispatched air accident experts to assist Indian authorities in uncovering what led to the crash.
Air India’s parent company, Tata Group, has pledged financial assistance of 10 million rupees (approximately $117,000) to the families of each deceased victim and promised to cover medical costs for survivors.
India has experienced several tragic air crashes in its aviation history. One of the deadliest occurred in 1996 when two aircraft collided mid-air over New Delhi, resulting in nearly 350 fatalities. Another occurred in 2010, when an Air India Express flight crash-landed at Mangalore airport, killing 158 of the 166 people on board.
Experts have warned against rushing to conclusions. Jason Knight, a senior lecturer in fluid mechanics at the University of Portsmouth, said that while it’s too early to determine the precise cause, an engine-related failure seemed probable.
“It is very unlikely that the plane was overweight or carrying too much fuel,” he noted. “The aircraft is designed to be able to fly on one engine, so the most likely cause of the crash is a double engine failure. The most likely cause of a double engine failure is a bird strike.”
India’s airline industry has seen rapid expansion in recent years. Willie Walsh, Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), recently described its growth as “nothing short of phenomenal.” With a population of over 1.4 billion, India has emerged as the fourth-largest air travel market in the world. IATA predicts it will become the third largest within the decade.
What you should know
The crash of an Air India Dreamliner in Ahmedabad killed at least 265 people and is being considered one of the country’s worst aviation disasters. While investigations are ongoing, experts suspect a possible double engine failure, potentially from a bird strike.
Authorities have retrieved the black box and international investigators have joined to determine the cause. One passenger miraculously survived the crash, which struck a residential area shortly after takeoff.
