A London-bound Air India plane, carrying 242 passengers and crew, including former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, crashed into a medical college complex shortly after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon
Pic/PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday visited the site of the Ahmedabad plane crash, in which over 200 people lost their lives.
The prime minister arrived at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Airport in Ahmedabad and drove straight to the Ahmedabad plane crash site in the Meghaninagar area, officials said.
He was accompanied by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.
PM Modi also visited the Civil Hospital in the city to meet with those injured in a mishap that took place a day ago.
A London-bound Air India plane, carrying 242 passengers and crew, including former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, crashed into a medical college complex shortly after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon.
Miraculously, one person survived the deadly crash, the airline authorities said, adding that the survivor was a British national of Indian origin. The aircraft had 232 passengers and 10 crew members, including 169 Indians, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese and a Canadian, on board.
Four MBBS students and a doctor's wife were among those killed at the complex of BJ Medical College outside the airport perimeter.
Meanwhile, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel returned with a sniffer dog squad to the Air India Flight 171 plane crash site to carry out operations to search for any remaining survivors.
NDRF has ramped up its presence in Ahmedabad, deploying teams to handle the emergency after Air India flight 171, a Boeing 787-8, crashed shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Thursday.
NDRF Inspector Vinay Kumar said that the force has recovered 81 bodies so far and has deployed seven teams to help with the emergency situation.
"The operation is not yet complete. It is ongoing. We have recovered 81 bodies so far. We can't say anything about the total number of deaths as of now. Seven teams of NDRF have been deployed," Kumar told reporters.
(With inputs from Agencies)
