Investigators recovered a black box recorder on Friday from the crash site of a London-bound passenger jet that ploughed into a residential area of India’s Ahmedabad city, killing at least 265 people on board and on the ground.
The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner issued a mayday call shortly before it crashed around lunchtime on Thursday after lifting barely 100 metres (330 feet) from the ground.
One man on board the plane, which was carrying 242 passengers and crew, miraculously survived the fiery crash, which left the tailpiece of the aircraft jutting out of the second floor of a hostel for medical staff from a nearby hospital.
“Initially, I too thought that I was about to die, but then I opened my eyes and realised that I was still alive,” survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British citizen, told national broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed.
The nose and front wheel of Air India flight 171 landed on a canteen building where students were having lunch, witnesses said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Kanan Desai said 265 bodies had been counted so far, which suggested that at least 24 people were killed on the ground. The toll could rise further as more body parts are recovered.
“The official number of deceased will be declared only after DNA testing is completed”, Home Minister Amit Shah said in a statement late on Thursday. DNA samples will be taken from family members of the dead who live abroad, he said.
Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight bound for London’s Gatwick airport, as well as 12 crew members.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the devastated neighbourhood on Friday and was also pictured by survivor Ramesh’s bedside.
Ramesh, who suffered burns and other injuries, said: “Everything happened in front of me, and even I couldn’t believe how I managed to come out alive from that.”
“Within a minute after takeoff, suddenly… it felt like something got stuck… I realised something had happened, and then suddenly the plane’s green and white lights turned on.”
Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said that a flight data recorder, or black box, had been recovered, saying it would “significantly aid” investigations.
