Terrified students leapt from windows to “save themselves” after the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, carrying 242 people, crashed onto a medical college campus just minutes after take-off in Ahmedabad.
Shocking video footage shows the Gatwick-bound Air India flight 171 taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport before appearing to lose power and coming down on a residential area called Meghani Nagar at 1.40pm local time. So far more than 290 people have reportedly been killed - both passengers on the plane and victims on the ground.
On hitting the state-run BJ Medical College five-storey hostel, the aircraft exploded into a fireball that could be seen for miles around - as students inside the concrete building tried desperately to escape the devastation.
In a canteen on the campus, medical students were on a lunch break when the aircraft landed on the now-destroyed building.
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A mother called Rami told Indian network ANI that her son suffered injuries while jumping from the second floor.
“My son had gone to the hostel during lunch break, and the plane crashed there,” she said. “My son is safe, and I have spoken to him. He jumped from the second floor, so he suffered some injuries.”
Another eyewitness said people jumped from as high as the third floor to “save themselves”, said one unnamed resident.
They told AFP: “Our office is near the building where the plane crashed. We saw people from the building jumping from the second and third floor to save themselves. The plane was in flames.”
Ayush, a resident doctor at Ahmedabad’s Civil Hospital, located close to the hostel, told the Hindustan Times that the crash sparked chaos. “Our friends and juniors have been seriously injured and are being treated now.”
Up to 200 people were in the campus on lunch when the aircraft came down, a postgraduate student claimed.
Local officers said five medical students were killed, while almost 40 were injured, including one student described as being in a critical condition in hospital.
Images of the aftermath, shared on social media, revealed the plane’s tail protruding from the damaged building, while chunks of the fuselage and wheels were visible within the wreckage inside.
In the canteen, plates of uneaten food were pictured lying scattered across the dining room. It’s still unclear how many people were inside the hostel, which is near the city’s Civil Hospital.
Outside the hostel, located in a residential area with some offices, flames burnt trees as emergency rescue teams rushed to the scene in a desperate bid to find survivors and clear the area.
“I was sitting at home, there was a loud noise, it felt like an earthquake,” said one man speaking to media from the scene.
He added: “I came out and saw smoke, I didn’t realise it was a plane crash, then I came here and I found out and I saw the crashed plane – there were many bodies lying on the ground.”
Another resident, Poonam Patni, said her sister-in-law was on the flight, and so she attended the crash scene. She told AFP: “When we reached the spot there were several bodies lying around and firefighters were dousing the flames. Many of the bodies were burned.”
An eyewitness, Haresh Shash, told PTI: “The plane was flying very low before it crashed. As it crashed into the building, the sound was like a blast, and the plane and the building caught fire.”
At least one person survived the crash, police have said.
Ramesh Viswashkumar was found by police in seat 11A, according to Indian news agency ANI. His family have said he is a British national from London who was in India visiting family.
He told the Hindustan Times: "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. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital."
Air India’s Flight 171, which was due into London at 6.25pm, had onboard 169 Indian nationals, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian. Eleven of those on board were children. Two pilots and 10 cabin crew were also aboard.
Located in western India, Ahmedabad, the main city in the Gujarat state, has a population of eight million people.
Local police said at least 290 bodies had been recovered from the crash site, but the total death count remains unclear as rescuers work through the charred wreckage. Those killed include both passengers and people on the ground, city police chief G.S. Malik told Reuters.
As hundreds gathered to view the crash site, the army, Border Security Force, State Reserve Police Force and city police quickly sealed off the area while rescue workers retrieving bodies and looked for survivors.
Firefighters tackled the flames while bodies were carried away on stretchers to be placed in ambulances.
Indian doctors’ association, FAIMA, posted on X: “We are deeply shocked about the news... news have become more gruesome after finding out that flight had crushed in BJMC, Hostel & many MBBS (medical and bachelor of surgery) students have also been injured.”
A spokesperson for India’s external affairs ministry said: “What has happened in Ahmedabad is a very tragic accident. We have lost a lot of people. We extend our deepest condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones.”
