Death toll after Air India plane crash rises to 279, local police source says

Debris of Air India flight 171 is visible after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12. Photo / AFP

An Indian police source says 279 bodies have been recovered from the site where a passenger jet crashed into a residential district of the city of Ahmedabad.

The revised toll on Saturday from a senior officer in the city, who requested anonymity in order to speak to the media, raises an earlier figure of 265.

The increase makes it one of the deadliest plane disasters of the 21st century.

Air India said there were 242 people on board the flight bound for London’s Gatwick airport, only one of whom survived.

At least 38 people were killed on the ground when the plane smashed into residential buildings near the airport.

The official casualty number will not be finalised until the slow process of DNA identification is completed.

Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner issued a mayday call moments before it crashed on Thursday after lifting barely 100m from the ground.

Investigators recovered a black box recorder on Friday from the crash site, with forensic teams still looking for the second.

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.

– Agence France-Presse