The only known survivor of an Air India plane crash that killed more than 240 people has described hearing a loud noise moments after takeoff before the aircraft slammed into a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, flight AI171, was bound for London's Gatwick Airport when it went down on Thursday night AEST.
Forty-year-old Ramesh Viswashkumar, a British national of Indian origin, told the Hindustan Times from his hospital bed that he was in seat 11A, next to an emergency exit. 'Thirty seconds after take off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed,' he said. 'When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me.'
Authorities initially reported 294 dead but revised the figure to more than 240, including passengers and people on the ground. Among the deceased was former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani. The plane carried 242 people: 217 adults, 11 children and two infants. Air India said 169 were Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian.
CCTV footage showed the plane taking off over a residential area before disappearing, followed by a huge fireball. Air traffic control received a Mayday call at 1:39 pm but lost contact thereafter. The aircraft, delivered to Air India in January 2014, was the first Dreamliner crash since the model entered service in 2011.
India's Civil Aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu announced a formal investigation by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau and a high-level committee. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg and Air India CEO Campbell Wilson expressed condolences and support for the probe. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the images 'devastating,' and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the tragedy was 'heartbreaking beyond words.'
