New Delhi: An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick crashed immediately after take-off from Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon.

At the time of crash there were 232 passengers and ten crew on the flight and none of them survived the crash, said officials. The plane slammed into a hostel for doctors of a medical college, killing five medical students. Visuals from the crash site show debris had pierced through the wall of a dining hall of the hostel, with food still visible on some of the plates.

A video of the aircraft flying low and struggling to gain altitude shows the plane slamming the ground and exploding in a massive ball of fire at
1.38 pm. It was loaded with fuel since it was flying a long distance to London.

According to the reports after take-off, the pilot sent out a mayday call. There was no response after that to repeated calls from the air traffic controller.

In the final moments, the catastrophic failure to achieve lift happened at a very low altitude of 825 feet. Flight No. AI 171, operating Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, had on board 169 Indians, 53 are British nationals, 1 Canadian and seven Portuguese nationals.

Visuals showed charred wreckage of the plane, thick smoke rising from the site and emergency personnel at work. Some videos also showed injured taken to hospitals.

At least two dozen ambulances arrived at the site and some have taken away injured people to hospital. The police have diverted traffic from the area.

He is personally monitoring the situation and directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action, said Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu. In his twitter x post he said that ‘My thoughts and prayers are with all those on board and their families’.

The DGCA in a statement said the aircraft piloted by captain Sumeet Sabharwal with 8,200 hours of experience and first officer Clive Kundar with 1,100 hours of experience made a mayday call just before the crash. Air India has set up a dedicated passenger hotline number 1800 5691 444 to provide more information.