Air India flight 171 fell on Thursday (12), less than a minute after takeoff at 1:39 pm (5:09 am Brasília), bound for Gatwick Airport in London
At least 279 people died on Thursday (12) when one from Air India fell into the Indian city of Ahmedabad, becoming the deadliest air disaster in the world since 2014, according to a new balance released on Saturday (14). A total of 279 bodies or remains were taken to the city hospital in northwest. The previous number of dead was 265, including passengers, crew and victims who died on the ground when the plane crashed.
Air India flight 171 fell on Thursday, less than a minute after takeoff at 1:39 pm (5:09 am Brasília), bound for Gatwick airport in London, according to India’s civil aviation authority. The aircraft issued a rescue signal almost immediately after takeoff before falling into a residential neighborhood of Ahmedabad near the airport.
According to Indian civil aviation authorities, the Boeing 787 carried 230 passengers – 169 Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian – and 12 crew. One of the passengers, who was sitting on the front of the plane, miraculously survived the accident. “I still can’t believe I left there alive,” Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40 -year -old Briton of Indian origin, told Indian television.
The new number of dead indicates that 38 people died on the ground when the plane crashed around Ahmedabad airport and exploded.
‘IMPORTANT STEP’
India Interior Minister Amit Shah indicated that the final balance of the disaster would be disclosed after all the victim’s DNA identifications. This accident has been the deadliest in the world since the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, knocked down in July 2014 by a missile over Ukraine while making the Amsterdam route to Kuala Lumpur. The fall left 298 dead.
On Friday (13), the investigators recovered one of the plane’s black boxes, which records flight data, and the searches continue on Saturday by the second box, which records conversations in the cabin.
The discovery of the first box is “an important step in investigating the causes of the accident,” said Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu on Friday.
*With information from AFP
Posted by Nátaly Tenório
