>>28967872>Emergency crews were at the scene after an Air India plane with more than 200 people on board crashed near the airport in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, according to Indiaโs civil aviation minister.CreditCredit...Ajit Solanki/Associated PressAn Air India flight carrying 242 passengers and crew members crashed shortly after taking off in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, the airline said. There was no immediate information about survivors, but Indiaโs health minister said โmany peopleโ had died.
Air India said Flight 171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick Airport had taken off at around 1:40 p.m. on Thursday. The airline said that the plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was carrying 169 Indian citizens, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. It added that injured people were being taken to hospitals.
The plane departed from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, which shut down and suspended all flight operations after the crash, the airport said. It had been scheduled to land in London at 6:25 p.m., London Gatwick Airport said.
Indiaโs minister of civil aviation, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, said that rescue teams had been mobilized to the crash site.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India said the crash was โheartbreaking beyond words.โ In a statement on social media, he said, โIn this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.โ
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Air India, said that the company was focused on โsupporting all the affected people and their familiesโ and that it was doing all it could to assist the emergency response teams at the site.
Hereโs what else to know:
Boeing troubles: Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft have experienced operational problems with passengers onboard, resulting in evacuations and injuries. There have been no fatal crashes previously recorded for the aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.