Few survivors likely after Gatwick-bound Air India flight crashes with 242 on board

There appear to be very few survivors from a Gatwick Airport-bound plane carrying 53 British nationals which crashed shortly after take-off in India.

Ahmedabad police commissioner Gyanendra Singh Malik told the Associated Press that “some locals would also have died” in the crash on Thursday. It is being reported that the plane, which crashed seconds after leaving the Indian airport, plunged into a medical college in a nearby residential area.

Expressing his condolences today, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said it was an "horrific" event. 

“It is very, very sad what has happened in India, the plane (crash) just shortly after departure, I believe less than a minute,” the Taoiseach said.

“Our thoughts and our prayers are with the families of those bereaved, crew bereaved, and with the people of India, Britain and Canada. The world is a much closer place, we all travel.

“It is extremely sad and shocking that an accident of this scale has occurred with the loss of so much life.

He also referred to Cork's own links with a similar tragedy, in June 1985. 

"It’s not too long away from the commemoration of the Air India disaster in Ireland 40 years ago. All of us who experienced that had a sense of trauma that people go through when crashes of this kind happen.”

The airline said the flight to Gatwick this morning carried 169 Indian nationals, 53 British, one Canadian and seven Portuguese.

A video of the incident circulating online shows the Air India aircraft, which was carrying more than 240 people, flying over a residential area before crashing, creating what appears to be a huge fireball followed by large plumes of black smoke.

Images of the aftermath of the crash showed parts of the plane embedded into a residential building as firefighters continued to tackle the smoke.

Pieces of the aircraft’s landing gear, fuselage and tail could all be seen protruding from the building.

The airline said the flight was departing from Ahmedabad Airport with 242 people on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Local media outlets reported the plane crashed on top of a canteen at a medical college.

The Reuters news agency reported 217 adults and 11 children were on board the flight.

Gatwick said a reception centre was being set up for relatives of engers on board the Air India flight.

It is the first crash involving a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.

Flightradar24 said flight tracking data shows after taking off, the plane reached a maximum altitude of 625ft, which is about 425ft above the airport.

It then started to descend at a rate of 475 feet per minute.

Air India was acquired by Tata Group from the Indian government in January 2022 after racking up billions of pounds of losses.

The airline’s UK operations are at Birmingham, Gatwick and Heathrow, with routes to a number of Indian cities such as Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

It started operating flights to Gatwick in March 2023, with 12 weekly departures and five weekly departures to Ahmedabad.