Turkey has expressed its condolences over the horrific plane crash on Thursday when an Air India Boeing 787 with 242 people on board, bound for London, crashed into a residential area shortly after take-off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.
“We are deeply saddened by the plane crash that occurred today (12 June) in Ahmedabad, India. We extend our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this tragic accident and to the people of India,” said the statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry in the past few hours.
A total of 230 passengers and 12 crew members, including two pilots and 10 cabin crew, were on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner . The plane crash was captured on video and shows the aircraft losing altitude with the landing gear still deployed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad airport, crashing into an area full of houses and causing a huge fireball.
The aircraft hit a hostel for doctors, with part of the tail of the aircraft remaining on the building, according to images released after the accident. Numerous fire and rescue teams were immediately deployed to the scene, where the Indian authorities report that at least four of the hostel’s occupants are missing.
Only one survivor, who made it out of the plane on his own feet
Although initially mainstream agencies and media reported that there were no survivors, Times of India has reported as breaking news that a lone survivor has been found, citing official police sources: ‘The police found one survivor in seat 11A. One survivor has been found in the hospital and is under treatment,’ Indian news agency ANI reported quoting a statement by Ahmedabad Police commissioner GS Malik, who warned that the death toll is likely to rise due to the area where the plane crashed. A purported video of the lone survivor showed him walking on his own feet to an ambulance near the crash site.
While Boeing has suffered a series of accidents in recent years – especially with the Boeing 737 Max model – that cast doubt on the reliability and safety of its fleet, this is the first plane crash suffered by the 787-8 Dreamliner model, which first entered service in 2011.
Although Air India is not an airline with a long history of air accidents – the last one officially recorded left 18 people dead in 2020 when a plane of the low-cost subsidiary Air India Express ran off the runway – the truth is that until the final purchase in 2022 by the Indian Tata Group, the airline was experiencing serious financial problems and had a safety record that needed to be improved, although its managers claim to have improved it in recent years. The last major global air crash occurred in December 2024, when another Boeing, a 738-800 of Jeju Air, crashed in South Korea, killing 179 people on board.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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