Air India plane crash live updates: One black box recovered after airline confirms 241 on board killed – UK Times

One of two black boxes has been found after an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad, local newspaper Hindustan Times reported.

CCTV footage showed the Air India aircraft taking off over a residential area and then disappearing from the screen before a huge fireball could be seen rising into the sky from beyond the houses.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, with 242 people on board, which was headed for Gatwick Airport, south of the British capital, had only one survivor after it crashed onto a medical college hostel during lunch hour. The sole survivor is a British national of Indian origin and is being treated in a hospital, the airline confirmed.

The man told Indian media how he had heard a loud noise shortly after Flight AI171 took off.

Ahmedabad police chief GS Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground. The dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the main city.

The heartbreaking loss of Air India flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick is an example of an extremely rare event: a large jet crashing on an intercontinental air route.

Many prospective travellers will see the images of the tragedy in India, and three other passenger jet crashes in the past six months, and conclude that aviation is becoming more dangerous.

An Air India flight bound for London has crashed with 242 people on board in western India, with a police officer confirming that more than 240 have been killed.

The Boeing 787 aircraft departed from Ahmedabad airport in the western Indian state of Gujarat at 1.39pm local time (8.09am BST) on Thursday.

But after issuing a mayday call, it crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar just five minutes after taking off, India’s civil aviation authority confirmed.

Here is everything we know so far about the crash:

The Independent’s Travel Correspondent Simon Calder reports:

With speculation rife about the cause of the disaster, safety experts will soon be joined by investigators from the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) to work out what happened before the disaster on flight AI171 unfolded.

As always in the early stages of an investigation, aviation safety experts will consider a wide spectrum of possible contributory factors. These are the key areas they will be looking at:

A British man who survived the Air India plane crash has “no idea” how he escaped the aircraft, his relatives have said.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was carrying more than 240 people from the city of Ahmedabad to Gatwick Airport, including 53 British nationals, when it collided with a medical college shortly after take-off on Thursday, sparking a huge fireball.

Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, is believed to be the only survivor of the crash.

Speaking outside the family home in Leicester, his brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, 27, said: “We were just shocked as soon as we heard it.

“I last spoke to him yesterday morning. We’re devastated, just devastated.

“He said I have no idea how I exited the plane.”