The London-bound Air India AI-171 flight that crashed minutes after take-off in Ahmedabad, ended many hopes and dreams. A city police officer said there are no survivors.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to London had no stopovers and was carrying more than 80-90 tonnes of highly inflammable aviation fuel for the 10-hour journey. The crash had turned it into a huge orange fireball that raged for hours over the tightly packed terraces of the city.
Among the passengers on the doomed flight was Khushboo Rajpurohit, a bride on way to London to join her husband.
Khushboo, a resident of Araba village in Rajasthan’s Balotara district, had got married to Manfool Singh in January this year. Her husband is a student in London and she was about to meet him for the first time since the wedding.
Khushboo was the daughter of Madan Singh Rajpurohit, a resident of Araba.
The toll has been high for Rajasthan — 11 people from the state were on the flight. Among them were two men who were going to work as chefs in the UK and the son and daughter of a marble trader.
The crash took place at 1.38 pm as the aircraft lost altitude soon after takeoff. The plane had reached a height of around 825 feet when it suddenly started dropping. There was a mayday call from the pilot before everything fell silent – the huge orange fireball exploded in the sky, visible from around miles.
The flight was carrying 242 people — including crew members. The passengers included 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals.
Air India has set up a dedicated passenger hotline number 1800 5691 444 to provide more information.