A single passenger survived the fiery crash of an Air India passenger plane on Thursday, according to a doctor at a local hospital, which went down shortly after taking off for London with around 240 people on board. The airline has said there were no other survivors.
Part of the plane fell on top of a medical college in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad, killing at least five medical students and injuring nearly 50, according to a medical association.
It was not immediately clear why the plane crashed. The aircraft was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, a widebody, twin-engine plane. This is the first Dreamliner crash since it went into service in 2009, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.
Indian conglomerate Tata Sons took over Air India in 2022, returning the debt-saddled carrier to private ownership after decades of government control.
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A lone survivor from the Air India crash is being treated at a hospital, a doctor says
The single passenger escaped the fiery crash of an Air India passenger plane, according to a doctor at a hospital in Ahmedabad, shortly after it took off for London with more than 240 people on board. The airline has said there were no other survivors
At least one person survived the crash, news agency Press Trust of India reports
The news agency quoted Dr. Shriq M., who works in the trauma ward of the Ahmedabad civil hospital.
The AP could not independently verify the report.
Expert is puzzled why the plane continued to sink before the crash
Former FAA and NTSB crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti said it’s a mystery why the airplane was having difficulty climbing in the final moments of the flight.
Video of the plane from right before the crash does not show any smoke or fire, so he said it does not appear that a bird strike was an issue. And even if the plane lost one engine, the second engine should be able to carry it aloft, he added.
Guzzetti said it’s possible that both engines started to “roll back” and lose power at the same time.
“This happened on a (Boeing) 777 crash coming into Heathrow about 15 years ago. It was a dual engine roll back due to icing in the fuel. So there could be a fuel issue,” he said.
“Usually fuel contamination issues rear their ugly head during takeoff,” he explained.
Video shows Air India plane’s final moments before crashing in a huge fireball
The video shows the plane with with its nose pointed upward, sinking toward the ground before crashing and generating a huge fireball.
The Associated Press was able to verify the video on social media by matching up the flight path of the plane from the runway with the crash site and the nearby residential area. The AP has been unable to identify the person who shot the video to get permission to publish it.
A senior ex-official died in the crash, Indian lawmaker says
A former chief minister of the state where the crash took place was aboard the plane and is believed to have died, a lawmaker said.
Vijay Rupani, who had served as the top elected official in Gujarat state, was among the dead, said Sambit Patra, a lawmaker from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, on the social media platform X. Rupani was also a member of the BJP.
British air accident investigators are being sent to India
The U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch said it was sending a multidisciplinary investigation team to assist their Indian counterparts on the crash of the London-bound flight.
The U.K. is entitled under international rules to send their own investigators because there were a significant number of British casualties. Officials said 53 British citizens were aboard the plane.
The U.S. is also entitled to investigate because the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing Co., is based there.
On the ground, at least 5 medical students killed and around 50 injured
Part of the plane fell on top of the dining area of B.J. Medical College, killing at least five medical students and injuring nearly 50.
That’s according to Divyansh Singh, vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, a national body that represents resident doctors across the country.
“Some of the injured are critical. We are in close contact with our peers in the hospital who are on a lookout for more people feared buried in the debris,” he said.