A London-bound Boeing passenger plane with 242 people onboard crashed after taking off in India on Thursday, with “many people killed” as it burst into a fireball in a busy residential neighborhood.
Air India Flight 171 crashed in Ahmedabad — a city of about 5 million people — roughly five minutes after taking off for London Gatwick, according to Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, head of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
“It appears there are no survivors in the plane crash,” Commissioner G.S. Malik said, adding that “some locals would have also died” in the buildings it crashed into.
The pilot made a “Mayday” call seconds after takeoff — then shocking videos show the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner descending over the busy city and bursting into a massive fireball, with thick black smoke soon consuming the skyline.
NOW – Air India plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed at the airport in India’s western city of Ahmedabad. pic.twitter.com/v3zhiBfdlc
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Distressing images showed charred bodies on the ground around a flattened area of the city.
The 242 people included 217 adults and 11 children, a source told Reuters. Of them, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were