A London-bound Air India flight crashed into a densely populated area immediately after takeoff from Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon, with most of the 242 people on board and many on the ground feared killed.

The accident in Ahmedabad would count among the 10 worst air disasters ever in the world in terms of human toll. It was the worst air tragedy over Indian skies since a Saudi liner barreled into a Kazakh aircraft over Charkhi Dadri west of Delhi in November 1996, killing 349.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 230 passengers and 12 crew members turned into a fireball as it went down in the Meghaninagar area, home to a hostel of the B.J. Medical College, near the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. Barely 30-odd seconds into takeoff, the aircraft began to struggle for height, stalled and dropped dead.

NDTV reported that at least five doctors had died in the medical complex.

No official death count had been provided till late in the night. However, Ahmedabad police commissioner G.S. Malik mentioned one survivor.

“The police found one survivor (who was) in seat 11A. One survivor (the same passenger) has been found in the hospital and is under treatment,” he told news agency ANI. “Cannot say anything about the number of deaths yet. The death toll may increase as the flight crashed in a residential area.”

Among the 230 passengers, 169 were Indians, 53 were British, 7 were Portuguese and one was a Canadian.

This is the first crash anywhere involving a Boeing Dreamliner, feted for its advanced features.

Former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani was among the passengers.

The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the aircraft departed at 1.39pm from Runway 23 and soon after gave a Mayday (distress) call to air traffic control (ATC). Thereafter, it became unresponsive to the ATC’s calls.

The last signal received by Flightradar, an online flight tracker platform, shows the aircraft reached an altitude of 625 feet before it suddenly began losing altitude at a vertical speed of 475 feet per minute.

A senior pilot who watched the video of the crash said it appeared that both engines lost thrust. “In such a situation, the plane can’t go up; it just keeps coming down,” the pilot told The Telegraph on the condition of anonymity.

He said the video did not suggest a bird hit. “In case of a bird hit, smoke emerges from the rear of the engine. Also, there are other external visible indicators that were not seen, at least in this video,” the pilot said.

He said it was “extremely unusual” for both engines of the Dreamliner to malfunction at the same time. “It could have resulted from fuel contamination or some other reason,” he said, adding that the real reason would emerge from the investigation.

This is India’s worst air tragedy since the November 1996 mid-air collision over Charkhi Dadri, around 100km west of Delhi, involving Saudia and Kazakhstan Airlines flights that killed all 349 people on board the two planes.

Thursday’s tragedy is the second major air disaster in Ahmedabad. On October 19, 1988, an Indian Airlines plane crashed in its final approach to the cityairport, killing 133 people.

Horror scenes

One visual from the wreckage area showed the snout of the plane crashing through the top floor of a building that appeared to be the dining area at a medical hostel.

“The plane was flying very low and it crashed into the residential quarters of doctors and nursing staff of the civil hospital and B.J. Medical college,” Haresh Shah, an eyewitness, told PTI.

“There are several five-floor buildings which are residential quarters of doctors and nursing staff. Many people in those apartments were injured as, along with the plane, the buildings also caught fire.”

Another eyewitness said several cars and vehicles parked on the premises also caught fire.

A search was on for the aircraft’s black box — the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder — for clues to understand what happened in the last crucial moments.

The aircraft was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, with experience of flying 8,200 hours. The copilot, First Officer Clive Kundar, had 1,100 hours of flying underhis belt.

The Dreamliner had been delivered to Air India in January 2014. According to flightradar, its first flight was on December 14, 2013. According to Circum, an aviation data firm, the plane had accumulated more than 41,000 hours in flight and taken off and landed at least 8,000 times.

A team from the civil aviation ministry’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has arrived in Ahmedabad to probe the reason for the crash. The DGCA too is investigating the accident.

Boeing said it was in contact with Air India and stood ready to offer any support to the airline, PTI reported.

The airport resumed limited operation at 4.05pm, after a brief suspension following the crash, with safety protocols in place. It advised passengers to check with their airlines for the latest updates before leaving for the airport.

President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed solidarity with the bereaved.

The Tata group, which owns Air India, said it “would provide ₹1 crore to the families of each person who has lost their life in this tragedy”.

“We will also cover the medical expenses of those injured and ensure that they receive all necessary care and support. Additionally, we will provide support in the building up of the B.J. Medical’s hostel,” it added.

Air India chairman N. Chandrasekaran said an emergency centre had been activated and a support team set up for families seeking information.

Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group that manages the airport, tweeted about “extending full support to the families on the ground”.

The last major air crash in India involved an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 that in 2020 overshot Kozhikode’s runway after landing and disintegrated, killing 18 people.