No passengers appear to have survived the Air India flight bound for Gatwick Airport which crashed shortly after take-off, a police commissioner has said. Ahmedabad police commissioner Gyanendra Singh Malik told the Associated Press that “some locals would also have died” in the crash on Thursday morning (June 12).
A video of the incident circulating online shows the Air India aircraft, which was carrying more than 240 people, flying over a residential area before crashing, creating what appears to be a huge fireball followed by large plumes of black smoke.
Images of the aftermath of the crash show parts of the plane embedded into the side of a residential building. Reuters reports it crashed into a hostel housing 50 junior doctors.
Pieces of the aircraft’s landing gear, fuselage and tail could all be seen protruding from the building, as the horrific incident happened while some doctors were having lunch.
The airline said the flight was departing from Ahmedabad Airport with 242 people on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Air India also said 169 passengers were Indian nationals, 53 were British, one was Canadian and seven were Portuguese.
The King said he was “desperately shocked” by the incident and Buckingham Palace said he was being kept updated on the developing situation. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the crash was “devastating”, while his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi said it was “heartbreaking beyond words”.
Air India chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran described the incident as a “tragic accident” and a “devastating event”, and said emergency response teams are at the site. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has stood up a crisis team in India and the UK, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said.
The Reuters news agency reported 217 adults and 11 children were on board the flight. Gatwick said a reception centre was being set up for relatives of passengers on board the Air India flight.
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