Death toll in Air India crash pegged at 290 as doctors in building where plane engine crashed are recorded among casualties
At least 290 people are dead after a passenger plane crashed on departure at an airport in Ahmedabad, India, health officials said.
The plane, en route to London, hit a hostel for medical doctors when it crashed, and images show its tail protruding from the building.
The death toll includes people on the plane and others on the ground, police said.
A total of 242 people were aboard the Air India flight when it crashed. 241 of those aboard the flight were killed in the crash, the airline said while only one passenger, a British national, survived.
The crash also killed people on the ground after the plane hit a hostel for doctors.
At least 269 bodies had been brought to the city’s Civil Lines hospital, senior police official Vishaka Dabral told The Washington Post late Thursday, June 12.
“We are still verifying the number of dead, including those k!lled in the building where the plane crashed,” Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer, told Reuters.
Ramila, the mother of a student at the medical college, told ANI her son had gone to the hostel for his lunch break when the plane crashed.
“My son is safe, and I have spoken to him. He jumped from the second floor, so he suffered some injuries,” she said.
The only known surviving passenger aboard the plane was in seat 11A, next to an emergency exit, Chaudhary said, adding that there could be more survivors in hospital.
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed,” 40-year-old Ramesh Viswashkumar told the Hindustan Times, which showed a boarding pass for seat 11A in that name online.
“It all happened so quickly,” he told the paper from his hospital bed.
“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,” he said. “Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”
He said that his brother, Ajay, was seated in a different row on the plane.
“He was travelling with me and I can’t find him anymore. Please help me find him,” he said.
Ahmedabad police chief G.S. Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground. The dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the main city.
