Investigators and rescue teams are searching the site of one of India’s worst aviation disasters, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met with the lone surviving passenger, a day after an Air India flight fell from the sky and killed 241 people on the plane and multiple people on the ground.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, en route from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick Airport with 242 people on board, went down shortly after takeoff on Thursday, striking a medical college hostel in the western Indian city.
Investigators and rescue workers recovered the digital flight data recorder – one of the two black boxes on the plane – from the rooftop of the building on which the jet crashed, the aviation ministry said.
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said it had begun its work with “full force”. Meanwhile, operations on Friday were focused on locating missing people and recovering aircraft fragments and the remaining black box – a cockpit voice recorder.
An official from the National Disaster Response Force said it deployed seven teams to the crash site and they have recovered 81 bodies so far.
The crash caused extensive damage and left bodies scattered both inside the aircraft and among buildings at the site.
‘The devastation is saddening’
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the scene in his home state of Gujarat on Friday, meeting with rescue officials and some of the injured in hospital. “The scene of devastation is saddening,” he posted on X.
Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau launched an investigation into the incident.
Medics are conducting DNA tests to identify those killed, said the president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, Akshay Dongardiv.
Meanwhile, grieving families gathered outside the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad.
Two doctors at the hospital said the bodies of four medical students killed on the ground were released to their families. They said at least 30 injured students were admitted to the hospital and at least four were in critical condition.
Witnesses described hearing a blast on Thursday before dark smoke engulfed the area. “We were at home and heard a massive sound. It appeared like a big blast,” the Reuters news agency quoted 63-year-old resident Nitin Joshi as saying.
Footage from CCTV cameras captured a fireball rising above the crash site shortly after the Dreamliner took off. Parts of the fuselage were found scattered across the hostel complex, and the aircraft’s tail was lodged in the building’s roof.
Boeing said it was ready to send experts to assist in the investigation, which Air India warned would take time. The crash marks the first fatal accident involving a Dreamliner since the aircraft began commercial service in 2011. (Source: Aljazeera)
