Investigators retrieved a black box recorder from the crash site on Friday after a passenger jet bound for London crashed into a residential area in Ahmedabad, India, resulting in the deaths of at least 265 individuals on board and the ground.
The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner made a mayday call shortly before it went down around lunchtime on Thursday, just after taking off from a height of only 100 meters (330 feet).
One passenger aboard the aircraft, which was transporting 242 individuals, including crew members, astonishingly survived the tragic crash that saw the tail of the plane protruding from the second floor of a hostel meant for medical staff from a nearby hospital.
“Initially, I too thought that I was about to die, but then I opened my eyes and realised that I was still alive,” survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British citizen, told national broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed.
Witnesses reported that Air India flight 171’s nose and front landing gear landed on a cafeteria building where students were dining.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Kanan Desai confirmed that 265 bodies had been counted so far, indicating that at least 24 individuals on the ground were also killed. The death toll may increase as more body parts are recovered. Air India reported that the flight included 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian, along with 12 crew members.
“The official number of deceased will be declared only after DNA testing is completed”, Home Minister Amit Shah said in a statement late Thursday. DNA samples will be taken from family members of the dead who live abroad, he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the devastated area on Friday and was photographed by the bedside of a survivor named Ramesh.
In Ahmedabad, distraught relatives of passengers assembled at an emergency centre on Friday to provide DNA samples for identifying their missing loved ones.
