Plane crash in India: 1 passenger survived, according to authorities

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner took off from Gatwick airport in the UK at 1:39pm local time (4:10am ET). According to the Civil Aviation Authority, Air India flight 171 carried 230 passengers – 169 Indians, 53 Britons, 7 Portuguese and one Canadian – and twelve crew members.

The Ahmedabad police declared in the moments following the accident that there were “apparently no survivors”, only to announce that one man had survived the air crash.

According to several British and Indian media outlets, it is Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a Briton who was on board the Boeing 787 with his brother. Images of the latter walking through the streets of Ahmedabad are circulating on social networks.

“Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud bang. Then the plane crashed,” Vishwash Kumar Ramesh told the Hindustan Times. “When I regained consciousness, there were bodies all around me. I was frightened. I got up and ran,” he added.

In a video relayed on X, Campbell Wilson, the president of Air India, suggests that other passengers from the crash were found injured and were transferred to hospital: “The injured passengers were transported by the local authorities to the nearest hospitals,” he asserts.

The plane crashed in a residential area of Ahmedabad. According to an AFP journalist based at the scene of the accident, the plane crashed between the city’s public hospital and the Ghoda Camp district.

The plane crashed into the roof of a medical residence. The Indian Federation of Medical Associations reported on X that between 50 and 60 medical students were taken to hospital. Four are missing and at least two are in intensive care.

“Our office is right next to where the plane crashed. We saw people jumping from the 2nd and 3rd floors. The plane was on fire”, a resident told AFP anonymously.

The Indian Civil Aviation Authority said that a distress signal had been sent from the aircraft as it took off. The pilot of the Boeing 787-8 was an experienced pilot, with over 8,000 flying hours under his belt.

The U.S. Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has announced the dispatch of a team of investigators to assist the Indian authorities, in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) protocols.

For its part, the UK’s Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) also offered its assistance and deployed a multi-disciplinary team to India, given the large number of British victims.