The air debris India Flight 171 are represented after having crushed Thursday in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad. Friday, rescue teams with sniff dogs combed the accident site.
Punit Paranjpe / AFP via Getty Images
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Punit Paranjpe / AFP via Getty Images
Mumbai, India – The Plane Accident Investigation Office of India began investigating the deadly air crash on Thursday, one of the worst aviation accidents of the country for decades, with the help of the United States National Transport Security Council and British investigators. The authorities said that the airplane flight data recorder, or Black Box, was recovered on a roof on the accident site. “It marks an important step in the investigation.
The Passenger of the Headquarters 11A on Air India Flight 171 was the only one to get out of the rubble on fire – the only survivor of the flight to London who crashed in a medical college and caught fire Thursday, just after his departure from the airport in the northwest of the Indian city of Ahmedabad, with 242 passengers and its crew on board.
The authorities said they were undertaking DNA tests to identify the remains of the victims, who were burned Beyond recognition. Local media has reported that so far, Only six could be returned to their families. Media managed by the State indicated that the aviation watchdog of India, the General Directorate of Civil AviationOrded Air India to carry out additional security checks on its Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 “Aircrafts as a preventive measure”.
The surviving passenger, the 40 -year -old British citizen, Vishwaskumar Ramesh, was hospitalized with Non -fatal injuriesShortly after, he got out of the accident site. In images shared by local media, he was seen bloody, dazed and tightening his mobile phone.
“”I just went out, innig,“He said to the Indian Daily The Hindus. From his hospital bed, he told other media that after the plane crashed, he managed to spread the emergency exit door. “I can’t explain, it’s a miracle, everything.” He was traveling with his brother, who was a few seats and was killed.
The other victims included five medical students who had gathered for lunch in a cafeteria when the plane struck. Passers -by were also killed – a 15 -year -old boy who had delivered Lunch to his mother, Who directed a stand near the roadside and a grandmother who delivered lunches to the company of her 2-year-old granddaughter.
The people of the state of Gujarat, where Ahmedabad is the capital, long sought their fortune abroad, and it was clear in the list of victims who had been on the flight: a man who surprised his father With a visit to the Muslim festival of Eid; Another who returned home after attending his father’s funeral. There was a single mother Return to his job in nursing in the United Kingdom
The victims also included one of the directors of an Indian company, Love pumps, Who was traveling with his wife to visit his sister in London. “It is a tragedy in the way fragile life can be,” said his colleague Samir Desai at NPR. “There is no insurance about the following moment, which will happen.”
The tragedy intervenes in the midst of India’s ambitions to be a worldwide hub for transport, and as the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi built airports through regional centers with cheeky speed. India has recently become the third interior aeronautical market in the world, according to the State managed by the State News on air, Who has cited the data from the airline’s official guide, a global travel data service that provides an aviation analysis.
But an Indian Air Safety Expert Amit Singh, A former pilot, told NPR that even if the industry was developing, the security culture is lacking. “The main problem is the relationship with regulators and the operator,” said Singh. “There is a lack of confidence.”
“People who are in safety [industry] Weren’t surprised – because they expected something big to happen, “said Singh about Thursday’s accident.” Something … does not happen unexpectedly, there are always precursors – you will have small incidents, then major incidents, then a big accident. “”
He referred to a Airplane crash in India in 2020When an airplane skid on a track, killing 21 people, and accidents in flight schools. “So suddenly you have that,” he said.
Another expert in airline, Mohan RanganathanNPR told many airports in India did not comply with safety standards to ensure that there are no significant obstacles near airports. He referred to the accident on Thursday, in which the plane crashed in a six -story building a few seconds after takeoff. “A building so large, very close to the take -off path, just 300 meters [980 feet] The compound wall may be a serious violation, “he said.
Ranganathan accused the aviation dog for India of giving “licenses without appropriate verification, and the [government run] The airport authority continues to violate, because India has one of the weakest judicials with regard to air security. They will never give a verdict against government agencies. “”
“If that doesn’t wake them up, nothing.
The NPR has contacted the India civil aviation authority, the Federal Aviation Minister, Air India and its business owners, the Tata group, to comment on these allegations but have not received an answer.
Indian media Cité N. Chandrasekaran, president of the Tata group, as saying, “We will be completely transparent on the results.”
Chandrasekaran said that the company had taken it seriously “its responsibility for the company, and that includes being opened on what happened yesterday”. The Tata group also said that it would provide more than $ 100,000 to the families of each victim and would have offered to cover medical care for the injured.
Reuters Friday, the Tata group had been faced with repeated problems with Air India since the airline is purchased in 2022. India air problems are not ending soon: He had to cancel And divert the flights after the strikes of the Night of Israel on Iran, and a threat of bomb on a flight forced the pilots to perform an emergency landing in Thailand.
The plane involved in Thursday’s accident was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. He has not been involved in major accidents before and is a battle horse for long-haul flights. However, according to Watchdog of Indiation of India, In August 2023, a Dreamliner Air 787 Indian Air 787 was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff at Mumbai airport.
Boeing was under intense control over the faults of its 737 max which caused two plane accidents in 2018 and 2019 which killed more than 300 people.
Boeing said he would support the Indian authorities’ investigation.
