Passenger plane collides with dormitories in India: 290 dead, one passenger survives

A plane of the national carrier Air India with more than two hundred people on board crashed at the airport in the city of Ahmedabad in western India, reports the HIndustan Times.

Local TV channels are broadcasting footage from the crash site, showing thick black smoke rising from the airport.

There were 242 people on board, including 12 crew members.

Air India reported that flight AI171 was en route from Ahmedabad to London (Gatwick Airport), and an incident occurred with the aircraft, the details of which are being investigated.

Subsequently, Air India has reported that the injured are being taken to nearby hospitals. There were 242 passengers and crew on board: 169 Indian citizens, 53 British citizens, a Canadian citizen and seven Portuguese citizens.

UPDATED at 14:10. More than 100 bodies of the victims of the plane crash have been delivered to the hospital, Reuters reports, citing local police.

According to The Times of India, the plane collided with the dormitories of a medical college, after which it crashed and caught fire.

UPDATED at 16:00. All 242 passengers on board the plane had died in the crash, the Indian Express reports, citing local law enforcement officials.

UPDATED at 18:00. It has become known that one passenger of the plane survived – 40-year-old British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh was rescued by local residents, the Hindustan Times reports.

The head of the local police confirmed to ANI that one person had survived, but gave slightly different details: "The police found one survivor in seat 11A. He has been in the hospital and is under treatment. Cannot say anything about the number of deaths yet. The death toll may increase as the flight crashed in a residential area."

UPDATED at 19:10. The death toll has risen to 290, Reuters reports, citing police.

Videos and photos are circulating online, allegedly showing the moment and aftermath of the disaster:

The head of India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Faiz Ahmed, said the plane took off at 1:38 p.m. local time (11:38 a.m. Eastern Time) and crashed five minutes later.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to the head of government, Bhupendra Patel, the Home Minister and Police Commissioner of the state of Gujarat, where the disaster occurred, and assured of assistance from the central government.

Ahmedabad airport was closed after the incident.

The airport is located within the city limits:

• On May 23, a plane crashed into a residential building in San Diego, USA, six people died on board.
• On June 9, a light aircraft carrying six passengers crashed into the Pacific Ocean in the United States, six passengers died.