Hundreds of people were killed on Thursday afternoon as an Air India flight crashed minutes after taking off from Ahmedabad airport. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner had been heading to London with 242 passengers when it collided with a residential building in a massive orange fireball. The lengthy list of casualties included at least five medical students living in the hostel while several others were seriously injured.
“After the takeoff, the plane crashed here and after a preliminary enquiry, we got to know that the plane crashed into a building…which is a doctors’ hostel,” the Joint Commissioner of Police in Ahmedabad told reporters.
The crash took place within minutes of take-off from Ahmedabad airport with videos showing the jet descending as though it were landing. A giant fireball fills the sky as soon as the plane disappears out of view behind a rows of houses.
Visuals shared online showed the tail of the aircraft protruding from the roof of the building while parts of it lay scattered on the ground. Reports suggest that the plane had the plane had struck the hostel canteen while the residents were having lunch. The building — which housed around 200 students from the BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad — also suffered severe structural damage with some rooms reduced to rubble.
According to an update that was re-shared by the FAIMA Doctors Association, around 50 to 60 MBBS students have been hospitalised with two or three in a critical condition. Around four to five students remain missing alongside a few relatives of resident doctors. The wife of one super-specialist doctor was also found dead after the crash.
(With inputs from agencies)