At least 270 bodies recovered from Air India crash site in Ahmedabad

At least 270 bodies have been recovered after a London-bound Air India plane crashed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, as a rescue team continues to search the site of India’s worst aviation disaster in three decades.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with 242 people on board and 125,000 litres of fuel, lost altitude seconds after takeoff on Thursday and crashed into a residential area, killing all but one on board and at least two dozen others on the ground.Of the 242 passengers and crew on board the Air India plane, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were British, seven were Portuguese, and one was Canadian.

The lone survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, is under observation at the Civil Hospital for his impact wounds. Gameti said he was “doing very well and will be ready to be discharged any time soon”.India’s Civil Aviation Minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, said the flight’s digital data recorder, or the black box, was recovered from a rooftop near the crash site by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash. He said the government will look into all possible theories of what could have caused the crash.India’s Civil Aviation Minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, said the flight’s digital data recorder, or the black box, was recovered from a rooftop near the crash site by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash. He said the government will look into all possible theories of what could have caused the crash.There are currently about 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide, and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts. The United States planemaker Boeing, whose planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft, said it was in touch with Air India and stood “ready to support them” over the incident.