An Air India plane with more than 200 people on board has crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in western India, officials say.
The airline says in a statement that Flight 171, bound for London Gatwick Airport, had 242 passengers and crew members on board when it crashed after takeoff on Thursday.
The passengers on the Boeing 787-8 aircraft included 169 Indian nationals, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian.
Faiz Kidwai, the director-general of India’s directorate of civil aviation, told The Associated Press news agency that Air India Flight AI171 crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar five minutes after takeoff at 13h38 on Thursday.
He gave a slightly higher number of people on the plane, saying 244 were on board – 232 passengers and 12 crew.
Footage showed smoke billowing from the crash site near the city’s airport, as well as people being moved on stretchers and taken away in ambulances.
India’s aviation minister Ram Kinjarapu says he was “shocked and devastated” about the crash, and sent his “thoughts and prayers are with all those on board and their families”.
“I am personally monitoring the situation and have directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action,” he says in a statement posted to X.
“Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site.”
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad airport, the aircraft gave a ‘mayday’ call, signalling an emergency, but after that, there was no response, Reuters reports.
Ahmedabad airport says it had suspended all flight operations with immediate effect.
Aviation tracking site Flightradar24 says the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, a widebody, twin-engined plane that is one of the most modern passenger aircraft in service.
This is the first crash ever of a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras told Al Jazeera that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had been known for its impeccable reputation in terms of safety.
“The 787 has been in service for 15 years – this is a mid to long-haul passenger aircraft, one of the latest from Boeing in terms of the development and the introduction of carbon-fibre aircraft,” he says.
“In fact, in its 15 years of commercial service globally, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has never been involved in a crash or a hull loss or a fatal accident.”
The last fatal plane crash in India was in 2020 and involved an aircraft from Air India Express, the carrier’s low-cost arm. Twenty-one people were killed when the aircraft overshot a runway at Kozhikode International Airport in southern India.
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