Over 240 Killed

Ahmedabad,  : A London-bound Air India plane carrying 242 passengers and crew crashed in a crowded residential area minutes after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport on June 12. Many people were feared killed. More than 200 people have died after the plane crashed, Kanan Desai, a top city police officer, told Reuters. Ahmedabad’s city police commissioner told AP that there do not appear to have been any survivors from the plane that crashed, and that there are likely also casualties from the area of
the city where it went down. The pilot of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner issued a “Mayday”
distress call, denoting a full emergency, soon after takeoff, the Air Traffic Control at
Ahmedabad said. In a video recorded by a resident, the twinengine wide-bodied aircraft could be seen losing altitude rapidly and crashing in a ball of fire that sent plumes of thick black smoke spiralling up in the air. Former Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP
leader Vijay Rupani was reported to be among the 230 passengers and 12 crew members on the doomed flight from Ahmedabad to London’s Gatwick airport. According to Air India, of the 230 passengers, 169 were Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. The aircraft crashed near the residential quarters of doctors and nursing
staff of the City Civil Hospital and B.J. Medical College in Meghaninagar near the city’s
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. “The aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from Runway 23. It gave a MAYDAY Call to ATC, but thereafter no response was given by the aircraft to the calls made by ATC,” according to a statement from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Following the crash,
aviation attorney Robert A. Clifford publicly said: “Review of available video and eyewitness information indicate some form of power or flight control loss. The Indian government investigators should have flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder information within a couple of days that will provide vital information to try to get to
the bottom of this deadly tragedy.” Visuals from the wreckage area showed charred
bodies being pulled out and the injured, many with burns, wheeled into the city’s civil
hospital close by. This is India’s biggest air disaster since 2020, when an Air India Express flight skidded off a wet runway while landing at Kozhikode in Kerala and split into two. Of the 190 people on board, 21, including two pilots, lost their lives. Eyewitnesses in Ahmedabad said the blaze was so intense that it led to at least one multi-storey building being burnt and trees being singed. Airport operations in the city were temporarily suspended. The ill-fated flight was under the command of Capt. Sumeet Sabharwal, along with First Officer Clive Kundar. While Sabharwal has 8,200 hours of flying experience, Kundar 1,100 hours, the DGCA said in a statement. Immediately after departure from Runway 23, the aircraft fell on the ground outside the airport perimeter, it said.

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