Investigators recovered, on Friday, June 13, a black box recorder from the crash site of a London-bound passenger jet that ploughed into a residential area of the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, killing at least 265 people on board and on the ground. The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner issued a mayday call shortly before it crashed, after lifting barely 100 meters from the ground.
One man on board the plane, which was carrying 242 passengers and crew, miraculously survived the fiery crash. Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and a Canadian on board the flight bound for London's Gatwick airport, as well as 12 crew members.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Kanan Desai said that 265 bodies had been counted so far, which suggested that at least 24 people were killed on the ground. The toll could rise further as more body parts are recovered. "The official number of deceased will be declared only after DNA testing is completed," Home Minister Amit Shah said in a statement late on Thursday. DNA samples will be taken from family members of the dead who live abroad, he said.
Ahmedabad, the main city in India's Gujarat state, is home to around eight million people and its busy airport is surrounded by densely packed residential areas.
US planemaker Boeing said it was in touch with Air India and stood "ready to support them" over the incident, which a source close to the case said was the first crash for a 787 Dreamliner.
The United Kingdom and United States air accident investigation agencies announced they were sending teams to support their Indian counterparts.
Tata Group, Air India's owners, offered financial aid of 10 million rupees ($117,000) to "the families of each person who has lost their life in this tragedy," as well as funds to cover medical expenses of those injured.
India has suffered a series of fatal air crashes, including a 1996 disaster when two jets collided mid-air over New Delhi, killing nearly 350 people. In 2010, an Air India Express jet crashed and burst into flames at Mangalore airport in southwest India, killing 158 of the 166 passengers and crew on board.
India's airline industry has boomed in recent years, with Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), last month calling it "nothing short of phenomenal." The growth of its economy has made India and its 1.4 billion people the world's fourth-largest air market – domestic and international – with the IATA projecting it will become the third biggest within the decade, after the US and China.