Foreign News
Air India plane crash claims at least 241 lives as one passenger survives
Air India Flight AI171 travelling from India to London crashed within moments of take-off on Thursday, killing 241 passengers and crew, and more people on the ground.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which took off from the city of Ahmedabad, in western India, ploughed into a residential area, hitting a hospital complex and medical student hostel.
One passenger survived the disaster – a British national, who was sitting in seat 11A and who later told family he had no idea how he walked away.
It is not yet clear what caused the crash, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as “heartbreaking beyond words”.
Officials warned the death toll could rise in what was quickly described as one of the deadliest aviation disasters in India’s history.
Air India Flight AI171 departed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 13:39 local time (08:09 GMT), and was due to touch-down at London’s Gatwick Airport at 18:25 BST.
There were 230 passengers on board, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese citizens, one Canadian and 12 crew members.
The local police chief told the BBC that 204 bodies had been recovered so far – but it is not known how many of those victims were on the plane or were on the ground.
Images from the scene show debris scattered across a large crash zone, with parts of the aircraft embedded in buildings.
The extraordinary news that one person had survived the disaster quickly made international headlines, as the British national, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, was filmed limping towards an ambulance, with smoke billowing in the background.
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise… it all happened so quickly,” he told local media from hospital.
His cousin, Ajay Valgi, said Ramesh called his family to say he was “fine”, but he does not know the whereabouts of his brother, also called Ajay, who was on the plane with him.
Thursday’s incident was the first fatal crash involving a 787 Dreamliner, first introduced in 2011.
Boeing said in a statement that it “stands ready” to support the investigation, which is being led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
“We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected,” the bureau said.
US and British investigators will travel to India, with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) saying it will assist Indian authorities.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the aircraft issued a mayday call seconds after take-off.
It lost contact with air traffic control shortly thereafter, crashing just outside the airport’s perimeter.
The crash site lies within a medical campus with 10 specialised centres. The BBC’s Sachin Pithva described scenes of chaos, with rescue workers retrieving the remains of those who perished.
Thick smoke was still billowing from the buildings hours after the crash, and passengers’ passports were strewn around, he reported.
Gujarat’s Additional Chief Secretary for Health confirmed the aircraft struck the students’ hostel and staff quarters of Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Civil Hospital.
“It crashed into the hostel mess and then bounced off on to one of the hostel buildings,” the hospital’s dean, Dr Meenkashi Parekh, told the BBC.
The crash happened at lunchtime when many students were in the canteen, she added. Photos show a huge part of the plane stuck in one of the hostel buildings, and a dusty, deserted mess hall with plates of uneaten food still on the tables.
“Most of the students escaped… but the building caught fire and the smoke was extremely thick. So, 10 to 12 students were trapped,” the dean said.
She added it was possible that several students had been killed. Officials said dozens were in hospital.
Tata Group, which owns Air India, has said it would give one crore rupee – the equivalent of about £86,000 – to the families of each person who was killed in the crash.
Prime Minister Modi wrote on X: “The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”
Both Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said they are being kept updated as the situation develops, while King Charles expressed his “deepest sympathies” to all those affected by the crash.
Starmer confirmed that a UK team had been dispatched to Gujarat to join the investigation as he urged families and friends of anyone affected to contact the Foreign Office.
[BBC]
At least 31 people have died after a powerful cyclone struck Madagascar, says the disaster authority in the Indian Ocean island.
Cyclone Gezani made landfall on Tuesday, hitting the island’s main port, Toamasina. Madagascar’s disaster management office said there was “total chaos” – reporting that houses collapsed in the impact zone, where the bodies were found.
Neighbourhoods were plunged into darkness as power lines snapped, while trees were uprooted and roofs ripped off.
“What happened is a disaster, nearly 75% of the city of Toamasina was destroyed,” the country’s military leader Colonel Michael Randrianirina, who seized power in October, told the AFP news agency.
“The current situation exceeds Madagascar’s capabilities alone,” he added.
The cyclone’s landfall is likely to have been one of the most intense recorded around the city in the satellite era, according to the CMRS cyclone forecaster on France’s Reunion island, AFP reports.
The National Office for Risk and Disaster Management said many were killed when houses collapsed. Cyclone Gezani hit Toamasina – the country’s second-largest city – with winds reaching 250 km/hour (155 mph).
“It’s total chaos, 90% of house roofs have been blown off, entirely or in part,” the head of disaster management at the Action Against Hunger aid agency, Rija Randrianarisoa, told AFP.
Madagascar’s disaster management office has evacuated dozens of injured people and hundreds of residents from a district around Toamasina, home to 400,000 people.
Residents in and around Toamasina described scenes of chaos as the cyclone made landfall. “I have never experienced winds this violent… The doors and windows are made of metal, but they are being violently shaken,” Harimanga Ranaivo told the Reuters news agency.
Gezani is the second cyclone to hit Madagascar this year. It comes 10 days after tropical cyclone Fytia killed 14 and displaced over 31,000 people, according to the UN’s humanitarian office.
Ahead of the cyclone’s arrival, officials shuttered schools and rushed to prepare emergency shelters.
Madagascar’s meteorological service said on Wednesday morning that Gezani had weakened to a moderate tropical storm and had moved westward inland, about 100km (60 miles) north of the capital, Antananarivo.
“Gezani will cross the central highlands from east to west today, before moving out to sea into the Mozambique Channel this evening or tonight,” the service said.
Cyclone season in the Indian Ocean around Madagascar normally lasts from November to April and sees around a dozen storms each year, AFP reports.
[BBC]
Nearly 127 million eligible voters are heading to the polls in Bangladesh, in a key test of the country’s return to democracy after a student-led uprising toppled longtime leader Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.
The vote is a direct contest between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a Jamaat-e-Islami led coalition of 11 parties, which includes the National Citizens Party (NCP), formed by youth activists instrumental in ousting Hasina.
Corruption, inflation, employment and economic development are the main issues deciding the election in the world’s eighth most populous nation.
Besides the parliamentary election, the country is holding a referendum on the National Charter 2025 – a document drafted by the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, setting the foundation for future governance.
[Aljazeera]
An airline in Somalia has praised one of its pilots after he crash-landed his passenger plane, which had suffered a technical fault, on the shoreline next to the capital’s international airport with all 55 on board surviving.
Starsky Aviation said the pilot’s quick thinking was crucial in saving the 50 passengers and five crew.
The crew of the aircraft, a Fokker 50, reported a problem shortly after take off from Mogadishu on Tuesday morning and requested that the plane return, Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said.
It then touched down but failed to stop on the runway, overshooting the tarmac before coming to rest in shallow water, the CAA’s director Ahmed Macalin Hassan said.
It is not clear yet exactly what the issue was.
Footage posted on X appeared to show passengers leaving the aircraft and walking away from the wreckage on the shore of the Indian Ocean. No serious injuries have been reported.
The African Union’s mission in Somalia said UN and AU troops were “swiftly deployed” to help with rescue efforts. Somalia’s transport minister was also at the scene, its post on X added.
“We are relieved to confirm that all passengers and crew are safe. Investigations are under way to establish what caused the technical issue that led to the emergency landing,” Starsky spokesman Hassan Mohamed Aden said.
“The pilot’s swift and calm decision-making played a decisive role in ensuring the safety of everyone on board, and we commend him for how he handled the situation,” he added.
[BBC]
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