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.

Public broadcaster SABC reported that the three children who were rescued on Tuesday were found clinging to trees.

On Wednesday morning, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane visited the scene to witness rescue efforts, and to meet affected communities.

He told Newzroom Afrika that while the situation was a “difficult one”, he was “quite happy” with the response of the emergency services.

South Africa has been hit by heavy snow, rains and gale force winds that have officially claimed the lives of 14 people, nine from the floods and five in a road accident.

Nearly 500,000 homes were left without electricity on Tuesday – and state-owned power provider Eskom says efforts are being made to restore connections.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered his condolences to the families of those who died as he urged citizens to “display caution, care and cooperation as the worst impacts of winter weather take effect across the country”.

The Eastern Cape – the birthplace of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela – has been worst-affected by the icy conditions, along with KwaZulu-Natal province.

The bad weather has forced the closure of some major roads in the two provinces to avoid further casualties.

[BBC]

On Monday he said he was “retiring” all of the Acip panel members. Eight of the 17 panellists were appointed in January 2025, in the last days of President Biden’s term.

Most of the members are practising doctors and experts attached to major university medical centres.

After the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves vaccines based on whether the benefits of the shot outweigh the risks, Acip recommends which groups should be given the shots and when, which also determines insurance coverage of the shots.

Noel Brewer, a professor at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health who served on Acip for a year, called Kennedy’s decision “norm-breaking”.

“I was stunned, but not surprised,” he told the BBC. “It was deeply disappointing and more than a bit upsetting.”

Kennedy noted that if he did not remove the committee members, President Trump would not have been able to appoint a majority on the panel until 2028.

“The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” Kennedy wrote.

He claimed that health authorities and drug companies were responsible for a “crisis of public trust” that some try to explain “by blaming misinformation or antiscience attitudes.”

In the editorial, Kennedy cited examples from the 1990s and 2000s and alleged that conflicts of interest persist.

“Most of ACIP’s members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Acip members are required to disclose conflicts of interest, which are posted online,  and to recuse themselves from voting on decisions where they may have a conflict.

Dr Brewer said the panel had “one of the most rigorous conflict of interest procedures of any federal committee”.

The members had a wide range of vaccine expertise, and thoroughly reviewed and debated vaccine data to make the best decisions for the public, said Paul Offit, a former Acip member and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

In his editorial, Kennedy said that the “problem isn’t necessarily that ACIP members are corrupt”.

“The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy,” he claimed.

Dr Bruce Scott, president of the American Medical Association, a professional organisation for American doctors, said mass sacking “upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives.”

“With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses,” Dr Scott said in a statement.

Kennedy’s move appears contrary to assurances he gave during his confirmation hearings. Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana who is also a doctor, reported that he received commitments from the health secretary that Acip would be maintained “without changes.”

On Monday, Cassidy wrote on X: “Of course, now the fear is that the Acip will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.

“I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”

Public health experts share Cassidy’s concerns that Kennedy may appoint vaccine-sceptics to the board.

Such replacements would mean some vaccines “won’t be recommended at all” and other effective shots could “no longer be reimbursable by insurance companies”, said Peter Lurie, a former FDA official.

“As a consequence, we will see still further declines in vaccination rates, and then a resurgence of the diseases that they could have prevented,” he said.

Kennedy did not say who he would appoint to replace the board members. The health secretary appears to be calling people himself and asking them to serve on the panel, said Dr Offit, who said he has heard from at least two people Kennedy called.

“His whole notion of radical transparency – this is the opposite of that,” Dr Offit said. “This is one man making a decision behind closed doors.”

Acip has a meeting scheduled starting 25 June, at which members are scheduled to vote on recommendations for vaccines for Covid, flu, meningococcal disease, RSV and other illnesses.

Dr Brewer said Acip had some of the “best scientists in the world”, adding that the secretary would have a hard time finding that calibre of experts again on short-term notice.

The BBC contacted the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Acip chair, Dr Helen Keipp Talbot, for comment.

[BBC]