Jun 13 2025, 11:17 AM, updated 7d ago
1. Footage showed the aircraft climbing away from the runway then sinking back down towards the ground, before disappearing behind trees and bursting into flames. The plane crashed into a hostel housing medical students, doctors and their families in the Meghani Nagar residential area and at least 24 people on the ground died.
On Thursday night, Air India confirmed that 241 of those on board had been killed in the crash, with a Briton, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, the sole survivor. The combined death toll makes it the world’s worst aviation disaster for more than a decade.
2. India’s home minister, Amit Shah, said the intense heat caused by burning jet fuel meant that had been little chance for anyone who survived impact to escape. “There was 125,000 litres of fuel inside the plane and it caught heat so it was impossible to save anyone,” he said. The final death toll would only be known after the DNA testing had been completed on the victims’ remains, he said.
Videos of the aftermath showed smoke rising over the area and firefighters on charred streets as people were moved on stretchers. In other images, people were seen assessing the damage while part of the mangled plane could be seen sticking out of a building. Pieces of the aircraft’s landing gear, fuselage and tail protruded from the wreckage. Residents said the crash sounded like a bomb blast and felt like an earthquake.
3. Ramesh, from London, described seeing bodies all around him after the crash.
“Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,” Ramesh, who still had his boarding pass, told the Hindustan Times. He said he had “impact injuries”, including bruising on his chest, eyes and feet, but was otherwise lucid and conscious.
“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. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”
4. Vidhi Chaudhary, a police officer, told Reuters: “Approximately 294 have died. This includes some students as the plane crashed on the building where they were staying.”
Three of the Britons who died in the crash have been named as Akeel Nanabawa, his wife, Hannaa, and their four-year-old daughter, Sara, according to a statement posted by Gloucester Muslim Community on Facebook.
Air India’s chair, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, described the crash as a “tragic accident”.
5. According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad airport, the aircraft departed at 1.39pm (9.09am BST) from runway 23. It issued a mayday call after which nothing more was heard from the flight deck.
The 242 people onboard included two pilots and 10 cabin crew. The passengers included 217 adults, 11 children and two infants, according to Reuters. Of them, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian, Air India said.
6. Tata Group, the parent company of Air India, said it would provide 10m rupees (£86,000) to the families of those killed in the crash. The company said it would also cover the medical costs of those injured and provide support in the “building up” of the medical college hit by the plane.
7. Residents told Agence France-Presse about the aftermath of the crash. “When we reached the spot there were several bodies lying around and firefighters were dousing the flames. Many of the bodies were burned,” said Poonam Patni.
Another witness, who did not want to be named, said: “We saw people from the building jumping from the second and third floor to save themselves. The plane was in flames. We helped people get out of the building and sent the injured to the hospital.”
8. The UK Foreign Office said officials were working with Indian authorities to establish the facts around the crash and provide support to those involved. Gatwick airport officials said a reception centre was being set up for relatives of the passengers.
The flight tracking website Flightradar24 said the signal from the aircraft was lost less than a minute after takeoff. In a post on X, it said: “We are following reports of a crash of Air India flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London.
9 Doctors were at lunch in Ahmedabad hostel, then a plane crashed into their building
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/...board-ahmedabad
This post has been edited by RT8081: Jun 13 2025, 11:23 AM
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theres more shit to come soon............
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