• At least 265 people were killed when a London-bound Air India plane (AI-171) carrying 242 passengers and crew crashed into a medical college complex in Ahmedabad and burst into a ball of fire less than a minute after takeoff on June 12.
• Air India confirmed that 241 people on board were killed.
• The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft was carrying 242 passengers and crew members. The passengers comprised 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national.
• Former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was among the dead. He was Chief Minister of Gujarat from August 2016 to September 2021.
• One passenger identified as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh survived the crash.
• The 12-year-old aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1.38 pm, carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew.
• The pilot of the plane issued a ‘Mayday’ distress call soon after takeoff.
• The aircraft with a full fuel load for a long trip climbed just about 600-800 feet before plummeting to the ground almost immediately.
• The twin-engine wide-body aircraft crashed in the city civil hospital and BJ Medical College outside the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport perimeter.
• Several students were impacted after parts of the plane smashed into a dining hall at lunch time in the multi-storey hostel building.
• The ill-fated flight was under the command of Capt Sumeet Sabharwal along with First Officer Clive Kundar. While Sabharwal has 8,200 hours of flying experience, Kundar 1,100 hours.
• This is the second major air disaster in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad. On October 19, 1988, an Indian Airlines plane crashed in its final approach to the Ahmedabad airport, killing 130 people.
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