Chhattisgarh Dy CM Vijay Sharma condoles loss of lives in AI-171 crash

"May God give strength to the families of the deceased... I am deeply saddened that Vijay Rupani is no more. This is a matter of learning why all this happened," Sharma told ANI.

The AI-171 Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 airplane bound for London's Gatwick had crashed shortly after it took off from the Ahmedabad International Airport on Thursday. The airlines said only one out of the 242 people on board the aircraft survived the crash.

The Air India flight to London crashed soon after it took off from the Ahmedabad International Airport, into a medical college complex in Meghaninagar nearby.

The aircraft was piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a Line Training Captain with 8,200 hours of flying experience, assisted by First Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 flying hours.

According to Air Traffic Control (ATC), the aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23. It made a Mayday call to ATC, but thereafter, the aircraft did not respond to the calls made by ATC.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is a division of the Ministry of Civil Aviation tasked with probing aircraft accidents in India.

A formal investigation has been launched by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) into the deadly crash of Air India flight 171 that killed 241 people onboard, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu confirmed on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and met with Vishwashkumar Ramesh, the lone person to miraculously survive the Air India plane crash a day ago in which all the other 241 passengers died.

The Prime Minister, who arrived in the city earlier today, also met with others admitted to the same hospital. Before arriving at the hospital, PM Modi inspected the plane crash site and took stock of the ground situation. He also held a review meeting with the officials at the airport in Ahmedabad. (ANI)