Indian Home Minister Amit Shah confirmed that a single passenger survived the crash and he met him at the hospital. A doctor said he had examined the survivor.
“He was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body,” Dr Dhaval Gameti told The Associated Press. “But he seems to be out of danger.”
Speaking from Leicester, Ramesh’s brother Nayan revealed harrowing details of a phone call made just moments before plane crashed. But he said another brother remain unaccounted for.
He told Sky News that their father had been speaking to Vishwash while the plane was still on the runway.
“My dad called him,” Nayan said. “And Vishwash told him, ‘Oh, we’re going to take off soon.’“
Just two minutes later, their father’s phone rang again – this time a video call from Vishwash, who had survived the crash.
“He video-called my dad as he crashed and said ‘Oh the plane’s crashed. I don’t know where my brother is. I don’t see any other passengers. I don’t know how I’m alive, how l exited the plane’,” Nayan said.
His survival offers a rare glimmer of hope in an otherwise devastating tragedy, though officials have warned it is still too early to confirm a final death toll or rule out the possibility of other survivors.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson indicated that some of those on board might have survived the crash, noting that emergency response teams had recovered “injured passengers” who were taken to local hospitals. He didn’t specify a number.
“This is a difficult day for all of us at Air India,” Wilson said. “Investigations will take time, but anything we can do now we are doing.”
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said its High Commission in New Delhi and Consulate-General in Mumbai were urgently following up with the local authorities to determine whether there were any dual Australians citizens or residents on board.
Luggages near the crash site of Air India Flight 171.Credit: Bloomberg
Emergency services were continuing recovery efforts at the site, which includes the remains of the aircraft embedded in the medical college in the densely populated suburb of Meghani Nagar.
As investigators combed through the wreckage and hospital staff work to identify victims, authorities warned that details remain unclear, and that it may take days to confirm the identities of all those on board.
Outside the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, grief-stricken relatives have gathered in desperation, searching for any word about missing loved ones. One man, clutching a copy of the flight manifest, broke down at the gates: “My sister and brother-in-law were on the flight. Their seats 110 and 111 were confirmed. We’ve lost our family.”
The flight took off at 1.39pm local time (9.09am BST) from runway 23 at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. According to air traffic control, the pilots issued a mayday call moments into the flight, but contact was lost shortly thereafter.
Inside view of a canteen building where the tail of the airplane got stuck.Credit: AP
The aircraft reached an altitude of just 400 feet before it crashed into a building that housed a doctors’ hostel in the suburb of Meghani Nagar, a densely populated area of Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat state.
Mobile phone footage showed the jet flying unusually low before it slammed into the structure and burst into flames. Eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos, with black smoke billowing across the city.
Raju Prajapati, a local resident, told The Telegraph: “We heard a huge explosion and rushed out of our homes. There were thick plumes of black smoke rising into the sky. People were shouting and running in all directions.”
At least 41 people on the ground were injured, though it is unclear how many were inside the hostel at the time.
The cause of the crash was unclear; Boeing has been involved in a series of incidents in recent years, including fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, but the Dreamliner has never crashed in 14 years of service. The aircraft’s pilot, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, was said to be highly experienced, with over 8200 flight hours.
Investigators are now focused on potential mechanical failure, with aviation attorney Robert A. Clifford suggesting early evidence points to a possible loss of power or flight control. India’s civil aviation ministry confirmed the flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been located and will be examined in the coming days.
In response to the scale of the tragedy, the UK Foreign Office has announced that a team of civil servants will be dispatched to Ahmedabad to assist with the recovery and support the families of victims. A reception centre has also been established at London Gatwick, where the plane was due to land at 6.25pm BST.
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The disaster is the deadliest involving Britons since 67 UK nationals died in the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Fifty-four British citizens died when Pan Am flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie en route to the US in 1988. Ten Britons were killed in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, when a Russian-supplied missile, fired by rebel, struck the aircraft over eastern Ukraine.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the crash had “stunned and saddened” the country.
“It is heartbreaking beyond words,” he wrote on X. “In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected,” Modi said in a social media post.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described the crash as “devastating” and said: “I am being kept updated as the situation develops, and my thoughts are with the passengers and their families at this deeply distressing time.”
