‘No survivors’ from India plane crash carrying 53 Britons, police chief says

There appear to be no survivors from a Gatwick Airport-bound plane carrying 53 British nationals which crashed shortly after take-off in India, a police commissioner has said.

Ahmedabad police commissioner Gyanendra Singh Malik told the Associated Press that “some locals would also have died” in the crash on Thursday.

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.

Air India also said 169 passengers were Indian nationals, 53 were British, one was Canadian and seven were Portuguese.

Tata Group, the parent company of Air India, said it would provide 10 million rupees (around £86,000) to the families of those who were killed in the crash.

The company said it would also cover the medical costs of those injured and provide support in the “building up” of the medical college the plane crashed into.

Local media outlets reported the plane crashed on top of the canteen at B J Medical College.

Divyansh Singh, vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, told AP at least five medical students had been killed and around 50 were injured after the plane collided with the college.

Campbell Wilson, the chief executive of Air India, expressed his “deep sorrow” after the incident, adding: “This is a difficult day for all of us at Air India and our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, their families and loved ones.”

UK officials are being deployed to India to support the investigation, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said.

The King said he was “desperately shocked” by the incident and Buckingham Palace said he was being kept updated on the developing situation.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the crash was “devastating”, while his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi said it was “heartbreaking beyond words”.

Air India chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran described the incident as a “tragic accident” and a “devastating event”, and said emergency response teams are at the site.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has stood up a crisis team in India and the UK, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said.

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 passengers 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.

Gatwick said there was no impact on wider flight operations at the airport, but a Thursday evening flight to Goa had been cancelled.

Recent analysis by the PA news agency found it was the worst airline for delays to flights from UK airports last year, with planes taking off by an average of more than 45 minutes later than scheduled.

The airline has gained a poor reputation for delays and cancellations in recent years, partly caused by a lack of funds to purchase spare aircraft parts, which led to some of its fleet being grounded.

The first flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft involved in the crash was in December 2013.

The plane was delivered to Air India during the following month.

The FCDO said any British nationals requiring consular assistance, or who have concerns about family or friends, should call 020 7008 5000.