Air India disaster – British man is miracle survivor among more than 240 killed | BBC News
air India has confirmed that all but one of the 242 people aboard flight 171 have died following the crash in the western Indian state of Gujarat the plane bound for London Gatwick crashed this morning shortly after takeoff in the city of Aderabad hitting a hostel for traininee doctors of those on board the Boeing Dreamlininer 787 53 were British nationals miraculously one passenger a British man has survived and was able to walk away we’ll hear from his family tonight the flight took out took off at 1:40 p.m local time on a 10-hour flight to Gatwick it was only 600 ft or so in the air when it came down less than a minute later the number of victims on the ground is still unknown what caused it to crash is still unclear we’ll piece together what we know and tonight we’ll hear from our correspondent Yogita Limai who’s at the scene of the crash and Samira Hussein at the local hospital first let’s join Yogita at the site of the crash rita an accurate smell of burning rubber wood plastic hangs thick in the air here at the crash site uh the buildings that you can see behind me completely charred and there’s a row of those leading right up to the place where the aircraft actually crashed it’s been cordoned off now but we were there earlier and literally we were walking through charred pieces of metals metal along the way we saw bodies that were being pulled out parts of uh rubble that were still smoking parts of rubble that were still on fire uh and we still don’t know how many people who were in this densely residential area populated area were killed in that crash but here is how events unfolded today it was meant to be a 9-hour journey a plane carrying hundreds of passengers hundreds of dreams but just after takeoff and in what must have been terrifying moments for those on board this flight made a frantic Mayday call but when air traffic control responded silence followed by a deafening explosion all of it caught on camera the plane crashed just outside the airport complex on buildings used as accommodation by medical students at a government college and hospital firefighters and emergency responders were rushed in tackling the blaze caused by a plane tank full of fuel not an easy task many locals ran in to help we met one of them later in the day raviva described what he saw i heard a loud explosion then I went to the spot and saw smoke bill blowing out we went in with the emergency response team and helped to pull the bodies out everything was charred it was very difficult and the heat coming from it was intense several hours after the crash the wreckage was still smoking working into the night rescuers pulled out more dead you can see there’s a tree that has been upturned and is still smoking here and behind me literally everything is shard it’s actually quite hard to even talk because the air is still uh smelling very accurate it’s still full of smoke and I I’m just going to try to walk around and show you the scale of the destruction there behind me that’s where the plane crashed but literally there’s a row of buildings about I’ve counted five or six of them that have been completely charred so the scale of devastation on the ground as well where the crash occurred the residential area where the crash occurred is just massive it’s still unclear how many residents have died but Air India has said all passengers were killed except one person this British national who was on board the aircraft miraculously walked out alive he’s being treated in hospital he’s one of more than 50 British nationals who were on board the plane that was also carrying more than 160 Indians and Canadian and Portuguese nationals for families who had just seen their loved ones off at the airport a gut-wrenching time my brother was on the plane one man cries london my sister-in-law was going to London within an hour I got news the plane had crashed i had left for Ahmedabad then I came back we don’t know anything we’ve not been able to enter the hospital first we were forced to roam on the streets for an hour and a half they kept saying “Stay here don’t stay here we have come to see our relatives not to be sent around in circles.” Only three years ago Air India became a private airline from being India’s national carrier bought by an Indian business giant the Tata Group at a time when it was trying to revamp its image to that of a polished reliable airline this is a major trial for its leadership we are actively working with the authorities on all emergency response efforts a special team of caregivers from Air India is on their way to Ahmedabad to provide additional support the investigations will take time but anything we can do now we are doing the last deadly incident of this scale in India was also of an AirIndia plane which crashed in the southern city of Kurikod 5 years ago for the carrier there will be difficult questions to answer yoga Almay BBC news this is Vishwash Kumar Romesh he’s the sole survivor of the crash and he’s a 40-year-old businessman from Leicester and this is where he was sitting in seat 11A near the front of the plane ahead of the wings vishwash is now being treated in hospital but his brother AJ was also on the plane and Air India says there were no other survivors their family lives in Leicester our correspondent Naves Johal has been talking to them [Music] the man believed to be the sole survivor Vishvash Kumar Romesh miraculously appears to walk away from where so many have perished today he was on the flight from Amedabad to London with his brother AJ this is him in hospital where he’s now being treated his remarkable escape has seen him visited in his bed by the Indian Minister of Home Affairs back at his family home in Leicester there was relief from one of his brothers upon seeing those images but concern remains about AJ obviously it feels great seeing him doing well fine I guess he’s just more worried about the other brother that’s all tell me a little bit about your brothers i could just go on and on about this all day uh there’s no words to describe them to be honest yeah we were all in shock as soon as we heard what happened just utter shock that’s all speechless vishvash has a wife and a young son he was born in India but has lived in the UK for more than 20 years this boarding pass shows that he was sat in seat 11A it was a window seat located in the front half of the plane the family says AJ was sat next to him vishvash told his family he heard a blast from the aircraft what has Vishvash told you about what happened to him so far honestly he he himself has no idea like how he survived how he got out of the plane well when he called us he was just more worried about my other brother like just find Audrey find Audrey that’s all he cares about at the moment that’s his concern and that’s all he wants is to find your brother he doesn’t care about himself the family has been overwhelmed by support from relatives neighbors and the wider community but they all fear the worst for AJ everyone is upset aj how are you doing this is your cousin who one of Absolutely upset yeah just not my cousin he’s also my one of my best friend as well so I’m feeling upset the scenes outside this house in Leicester reflect a community in shock and grief this city is home to thousands of people with links to the state of Gujarat here this tragedy feels close to home naves Johal BBC News Leicester well we’re learning more tonight about the people who died in the crash among the 52 British people who lost their lives are Javid and Mariam say from London who died alongside their two young children and Akil Nana and Hannah Varaji and their daughter Sara from Gloucester prayers have been held tonight for some of the victims simeta reports hindu prayers for the dead and the families who will never see their loved ones again several members of this congregation knew someone on that fatal flight it’s a really big loss for us and we all know the person i’m from Gujarat and Amiraabad is just nearby really painful we we pray today there are hundreds of thousands of people of Gujarati heritage in the UK and this flight was coming from Gujarat but what the worshippers here have made clear is that this prayer is not just for one community it is for all the communities affected by this crash the former chief minister of Gujarat Vijay Rubani was a close friend of the priest here and is believed to have been on the plane he gave us encouragement always support to the Gujarati community it’s very sad news in one family you lost one person but the entire community you lost so many people how you can cope and that’s the reason we kept the prayers here we are in the airport just boarding goodbye India others in their prayers a married couple Jamie and fingle green law meek who run a wellness and spiritual retreat in London this was their last Instagram post before their flight Also Javidid Ali Saied and Mariam Javeed Ali Saied they were killed along with their two children they lived in West London mariam had a job at Harrods and Javeed worked at a West London hotel and Akil Nana Baba and Hannah Varaji also died alongside their four-year-old daughter Sara who’s been described as a ray of sunshine tonight a sense of shared grief hangs heavily here as people remember those so tragically lost 4,000 miles away c Mitacher BBC News the Prime Minister Sakir Star spoke in Downing Street this evening about the crash and its impact on people here well the images and news from India is absolutely devastating and I speak for the entire country and saying our thoughts are with each and every one of those involved there will be British and Indian families across the land who are absolutely impacted by this and our thoughts first and foremost are with them obviously the investigation is going on we’ve dispatched an invest in investigation team that’s being deployed the foreign secretary is leading um on this and we’ll obviously update as soon as we can at least 50 injured medical students are being treated in hospital after the plane crashed into a doctor’s hostel in the city others were injured at the scene where the plane came down the bodies of the dead were taken to the civil hospital in Amedabad from where we can join Samira Hussein now samira Rita after the horror of the day it is the grim reckoning of the night things are pretty quiet here at the hospital as reality sets in this is no longer a search for survivors but the painstaking task of identifying the dead [Applause] the rush to save survivors the force of the crash and the explosion that followed most didn’t stand a chance sonel Ben’s aunt and uncle were visiting from London we dropped her off and in just a few minutes we got the message to come to civil hospital duly Bill saw the flames and ran towards the crash site we pulled out two three bodies we ourselves got very scared when I was pulling out one of the bodies a hand came into my hand we rushed the bodies to the hospital several hours after the crash people still searching for news but the rescue operation now officially over everyone on that plane has died save for just one person and so now the arduous task of identifying the bodies has begun and so family members have all assembled here and they’re coming to give DNA samples because the bodies are so disfigured the only way to be able to match people is by testing their DNA india’s home minister says the true number of dead will take time we will give the official death toll after the DNA is taken and their identities have been confirmed by the authorities but even when all the dead have been accounted for the grieving for them will only have just begun terrible scenes there at the hospital but establishing the number of people who’ve died and exactly what happened is going to take time isn’t it absolutely what the hospital officials are saying here that it could take 72 hours for that DNA testing to be complete so family members are just left waiting to hear and of course it’s not just the people that were in the plane that were on that plane but then there were also the people that were um at the college um that are also that also need to be identified this is just a grueling time and I just want to sort of set the scene here you know this is the main hospital where many of the bodies were brought and earlier today it was quite a scene there were so many people that were coming and it wasn’t just family members and friends but it was just people in the community you have to understand that this is just such a horrific crash and so many people were just overcome with grief that they wanted to be here to offer their support people have been distributing water to people they’ve been offering food uh one man who operates a tea stall decided to close it down and just give out biscuits to all the people that have been working here uh it’s it’s a it’s a time where the community here is really trying to come together as officials are trying to figure out exactly what happened samira thank you samira Hussein reporting there well details of the plane’s last moments and footage from the crash site are still emerging bbc verifies Merlin Thomas has been looking at what might have caused the crash the plane a Boeing 7878 Dreamlininer takes off from Ameabad airport at 1338 local time bound for London Gatwick tracking website Flight Radar 24 shows the last location of flight tracking data at 625 ft altitude here we showed experts the footage who say that the plane appears to be pitching up to try to gain altitude and you can see its landing gear is down when normally it would be retracted within 10 to 15 seconds of flight the crash site and its aftermath is just over 1 and a half km from the end of the runway the tail of the plane is lodged in a building here it’s part of the BJ Medical College it’s on the site of a hospital complex at least 50 medical students have been taken to hospital we know where this is because we’ve matched these buildings and aftermath to publicly available photos from the scene the Dreamliner 7878 has been in operation with Air India since 2014 so what could be the possible cause for some reason enough lift wasn’t being generated to keep the aircraft climbing that’s usually associated with not enough thrust for some reason or another um but more than stating that would would be to to get into the realms of speculation some experts told BBC Verify the plane’s wing flaps didn’t appear to be extended which could be a factor which led to the crash others say the video quality makes it too hard to tell the investigators will certainly look at uh the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder to determine if those flaps and slats were not extended or whether they were if it appeared to be an airplane issue or if it was a pilot issue and failure to set the flaps and slats where they should have now investigators will hope to find the black box amongst the wreckage to piece together what happened merlin Thomas BBC News this is the first fa fatal accident involving a Boeing 787 passenger jet known as the Dreamliner nick Marsh our transport correspondent is here with me and Nick what sort of record does this type of aircraft have what has Boeing said well until today Rita a very good record the 787 Dreamliner is a mainstay really of this kind of intercontinental travel i mean it was only last month that Boeing was celebrating its billionth passenger on this type of aircraft you know it just shows you you know how popular and you know how reliable it’s been until now the issue is that when you have news like this you hear the word Boeing you hear crash you think of those fatal incidents in places like Indonesia Ethiopia where hundreds of people died now that was Boeing’s fault that was faulty software which was an issue and that’s what caused those planes to go down today is different firstly because those incidents involved a different model the 737 Max this is the 787 completely different secondly and very importantly as we’ve been hearing there in Merlin’s report we don’t know what caused this crash there’s no suggestion at all that Boeing the manufacturer really is to blame at all but in any case it’s Boeing again its names being associated with bad news they’ve been losing so much money recently uh and this is going to be another challenge for the company okay thank you very much Nick Marsh there let’s get a final word with our correspondent Yogita Leai who’s in Ahmedabad and Yogita this is an accident with catastrophic consequences what will happen in the next hours and days well for the next few hours for the next few days I think we’re going to see the operation continue here and I’m going to show you why again just to try to give you a sense of the scale so those burntout buildings behind me those are at least 500 m from the crash site because this plane which had a full fuel tank crashed the flames that came and engulfed all of this uh there are earth movers here on standby uh the actual crash site is down this road there are barricades here we can’t go further at the moment but earlier today we were able to get there and it’s basically this whole row of buildings which were set ablaze which are completely charred so this operation is going to take some time there are expectations here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi might be visiting although we don’t have confirmation of that yet this is his home state of Gujarat but the biggest and most difficult questions of course for area India it’s announced compensation for the victims roughly £86,000 for the family of each person who was killed but difficult questions about what happened on that airplane and for a company that was trying to revamp its image that was trying to say it’s a modern new sleek Air India it was privatized 3 years ago uh after being India’s national carrier this what’s happened today is going to come as a deadly crushing blow thank you
More than 240 people are known to have been killed when an Air India passenger plane crashed seconds after take off from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, western India.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner came down in a densely-populated area of the city shortly after clearing the runway, causing devastation and many deaths on the ground.
All but one of the 242 people on board the flight are confirmed to have died, including 169 Indian nationals and 52 Britons. The sole survivor, Vishwashkumar Ramesh who is British, was sitting in seat 11a on the London-bound flight. He managed to escape from the aircraft and is being treated in hospital.
The plane crashed into a building housing medical students and at least 50 people are confirmed to have been killed on the ground. Rescue workers are continuing to search the scene of the disaster.
Reeta Chakrabarti presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Yogita Limaye, Navtej Johal, Sima Kotecha, Samira Hussain, Merlyn Thomas and Nick Marsh.
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