Unfortunate incident: Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishore expresses grief over AI 171 plane crash
'It is a very unfortunate incident that so many people have lost their lives in an air accident...' Kishore said, speaking to the media.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Ahmedabad and took stock of the site of the crash, and then proceeded to the Civil Hospital to meet the injured in the mishap.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, Union MoS Murlidhar Mohol, and State Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi accompanied PM Modi during his visit.
The AI-171 bound for London's Gatwick had crashed shortly after it took off from the Ahmedabad International Airport on Thursday. The airlines said only one out of the 242 people on board the aircraft survived the crash.
There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian national on board the crashed plane. Miraculously, one person, a British national of Indian origin, survived the crash, airline authorities said.
The aircraft was piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a Line Training Captain with 8,200 hours of flying experience, assisted by First Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 flying hours.
According to Air Traffic Control (ATC), the aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23. It made a Mayday call to ATC, but thereafter, the aircraft did not respond to the calls made by ATC.
Immediately after departing Runway 23, the aircraft crashed outside the airport perimeter. An official said heavy black smoke was coming from the accident site.
The aircraft crashed into a resident doctors' hostel building shortly after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. (ANI)
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