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Rescue work completed at crash site, buildings being

combed

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Modi visits crash site, hospital

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Dreamliner crash is first for Boeing's ( BA ) wide-body airliner

By Sudipto Ganguly, Abhijith Ganapavaram and Sumit Khanna

AHMEDABAD, India, June 13 (Reuters) - Rescue workers

searched for missing people and aircraft parts in the charred

buildings of a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad on Friday

after an Air India plane crash killed more than 240 people in

the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board bound

for Gatwick Airport south of London took off over a residential

area and then disappeared from view before a huge fireball was

seen rising into the sky from beyond the houses, CCTV footage

showed.

Only one passenger survived after it crashed onto the hostel

during lunch hour, causing deaths on the ground as well, which

local media has put as high as 24. Reuters could not immediately

verify the number.

Rescue workers had completed combing the crash site and were

now searching for missing people and bodies in the buildings as

well as for aircraft parts that could help explain why the plane

crashed soon after taking off.

Local newspaper Hindustan Times reported that one of two

black boxes from the plane had been found. Reuters could not

verify the report and the paper did not say whether the flight

data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder had been recovered.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefed by officials

on the progress of rescue operations when he visited the crash

site in his home state of Gujarat on Friday. Modi also met some

of the injured being treated in the hospital.

"The scene of devastation is saddening," he said in a post

on X.

Residents living in the vicinity said that construction of

the hostel for resident doctors was completed only a year ago

and the buildings were not fully occupied.

"We were at home and heard a massive sound, it appeared like

a big blast. We then saw very dark smoke which engulfed the

entire area," said 63-year-old Nitin Joshi, who has been living

in the area for more than 50 years.

Parts of the plane's fuselage were scattered around the

smouldering building into which it crashed. The tail of the

plane was stuck on top of the building.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that an

investigation into the crash was focusing on "whether the

aircraft had a loss or reduction in engine thrust", citing

unnamed sources. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the

report.

Air India Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson also

arrived in Ahmedabad in the early hours of Friday.

The company said the lone survivor, a British national, was

undergoing treatment in the hospital.

The man told Indian media how he had heard a loud noise

shortly after Flight AI171 took off.

Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer, said on

Thursday the death toll was more than 240, revising down a

previous toll of 294 as it included body parts that had been

double counted.

The dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of

Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the main city.

"Almost 70% of the passengers were found in their seats,

most of them had their seatbelts on," a first responder told

local newspaper Indian Express.

Air India has said the investigation would take time.

Planemaker Boeing has said a team of experts is ready to go to

India to help in the probe.

While Air India is not publicly traded, shares of rival

airline IndiGo parent Interglobe Aviation and SpiceJet

were both down 4% in early Friday trade.

Boeing's ( BA ) shares fell 5% in the crash's wake on

Thursday.

It was the first crash for the Dreamliner, a wide-body

airliner that began flying commercially in 2011, according to

the Aviation Safety Network database.

The plane that crashed on Thursday flew for the first time

in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014,

Flightradar24 said.

The last fatal plane crash in India, the world's

third-largest aviation market and its fastest growing, was in

2020 and involved Air India Express, the airline's low-cost arm.

In an unrelated incident, an Air India flight from the Thai

island of Phuket headed to Delhi made an emergency landing on

Friday after a bomb threat was received on board, Phuket's

airport said.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for

comment from Reuters.

The formerly state-owned Air India was taken over by Indian

conglomerate Tata Group in 2022, and merged with Vistara - a

joint venture between the group and Singapore Airlines - in

2024.