Air India plane crash: Investigation underway, black boxes found
An investigation is underway as to what caused an Air India airliner carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members to crash shortly after takeoff on Thursday. Both black boxes of the aircraft have been found on Friday, an Indian official confirmed to ABC News.
The boxes -- with one being damaged but recoverable -- will be investigated in India and U.S. investigators are expected to arrive on Sunday, Shri G.V.G. Yugandhar, director general of India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, said.
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was en route to the United Kingdom and crashed into a building in India's Meghaninager area near Ahmedabad airport, leaving 246 dead and at least one surviving passenger, local officials and the airline said. Boeing's Dreamliner planes had not previously been involved in an incident where passenger fatalities were reported.
"The flight, which departed from Ahmedabad at 13:38 hrs, was carrying 242 passengers and crew members on board the Boeing 787-8 aircraft," the airline said in a statement on social media. "Of these, 169 are Indian nationals, 53 are British nationals, 1 Canadian national and 7 Portuguese nationals."
The victims include 241 passengers and crew members, as well as five medical students who were inside the medical college and hospital the aircraft crashed into, according to hospital officials. Many others inside the building were injured -- some seriously -- and are receiving treatment, hospital officials said.
On Friday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson confirmed the loss of 241 of the 242 people on board the aircraft, saying those at the airline are "devastated by this loss, and grieve for those affected, their families and loved ones." He said a technical team is now helping at the crash site and nearly 100 caregivers are providing support to families.
"This morning, I visited the site and was deeply moved by the scenes. I also met key stakeholders in the government and assured them that Air India is committed to full cooperation with those working on the ground, and to the investigations," Wilson said in a video posted on social media.
The Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad confirmed to ABC News on Thursday that Vishwaskumar Ramesh, one of the passengers on the downed Air India flight, is alive and hospitalized there.
"Everything happened in front of my eyes. I thought I would die," Ramesh told NDTV in an exclusive interview on Friday. "The side where I was seated fell into the ground floor of the building. There was some space. When the door broke, I saw that space and I just jumped out."
Officials earlier said no survivors had been expected in the crash. The process of retrieving the bodies of victims is almost complete and DNA profiling of the family members of victims will be done very soon, according to Indian Home Minister Amit Shah.
There were around 125,000 liters of fuel inside the aircraft, with temperatures so high that there was no opportunity to rescue the passengers, Shah said.
The Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the plane "fell on the ground outside the airport perimeter" immediately after it departed from the airport. Video from the site appeared to show the jet disappear below the tree line, which was followed seconds later by a ball of fire and a thick plume of gray smoke.
"The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement on social media on Thursday. "It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it."
India's Ministry of Civil Aviation is establishing a multi-disciplinary committee to examine the incident, promising to assess "the root cause of the crash" and "contributing factors, including mechanical failure, human error, weather conditions, regulatory compliances and other reasons," it said in a statement on Friday.
The committee -- which will have access to all recorders on the flight, maintenance records, the air traffic control log and witness testimonies -- will conduct site inspections and interviews, and is expected to publish its report within three months, the ministry noted.
Air India announced it will organize two relief flights, one each from Delhi and Mumbia, to Ahmedabad for the next of kin passengers and Air India staff.
Tata Group, an Indian multinational conglomerate of companies that owns Air India, said they will provide families of each person who has lost their life in the crash with ₹1 crore (about $116,000) and will also cover the medical expenses of those injured.
ABC News' Joe Simonetti, Dada Jovanovic, Clara McMichael, Ellie Kaufman, Sam Sweeney and Camilla Alcini contributed to this report.
