PM Modi in Ahmedabad, day after Air India crash: All you need to know

Only one person miraculously survived. A British national of Indian origin, Vishwas Kumar Ramesh (39) was seated in ’11A’. He is currently receiving medical treatment at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

1. 01

   PM Modi visits crash site, meets lone survivor and others injured

   On Friday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed at the Ahmedabad airport and headed to the Air India plane crash site. During the 20 minute-inspection, he was accompanied by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Union Civil Aviation Minister K R Naidu among others.

   The PM also visited the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital to meet the injured persons receiving treatment at the city’s Civil Hospital. He also met the sole survivor of the tragic crash Vishwas Kumar Ramesh (39), a British national of Indian origin.

   After visiting the crash site near the Ahmedabad airport this morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a post on X, reiterated his condolences message on the “loss of lives in such a sudden, heartbreaking manner”.

2. 02

   Before PM visit, Amit Shah in Ahmedabad: What he said

   Hours after the deadly crash, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was in Ahmedabad on Thursday evening. After visiting the sole survivor in the hospital, he said that the temperature in the Air India plane was so high due to burning fuel that there was no chance to save people.

   “There was 1.25 lakh litre of fuel inside the plane and it caught fire so it was impossible to save anyone,” Shah said. He added that DNA testing was underway to confirm identities of the victims and that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has initiated a probe.

3. 03

   Status check: operation to clean debris at crash site

   The operation to clear the site of the crash including the removal of debris from the Air India plane continued overnight and was in the last stages as of Friday morning, an official told news agency PTI.

   Even dogs and birds at the site could not escape the drastic temperature rise from the fuel fire after the crash, they added.

   A forensic team also arrived and started work at the crash site on Friday morning

4. 04

   Search for black box still on

   As of late Thursday, the search was on for the Boeing 787-8 aircraft’s black box — the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder — to aide the ongoing investigation on the reason for the crash.

   Greg Feith, who is a former senior air safety investigator with the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said retrieving the black box would be his top priority if he was leading the investigation.

   "First, of course, would be recovering the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. That will give the investigative team the most reliable information to determine the direction the investigation should take — whether it’s pointing to an aircraft issue, a pilot issue, or a combination of both. So that would be a top priority," he told The Indian Express.

   Most aircraft are required to be equipped with two black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR) — that record the information about a flight.

5. 05

   Air India announces 'Friends & Relatives Assistance Centres' in 4 cities

   Air India has set up assistance centres in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, and Gatwick (London) airports for the relatives and friends of the victims of the plane crash in Ahmedabad, the airline said in a statement on Friday. These centres are facilitating travel of family members to Ahmedabad.

   The passenger hotline number for those calling from within India: 1800 5691 444

   Those calling from outside India: +91 8062779200

   The Tata-owned airlines, in a request to editors, asked mediapersons to not dial the hotline numbers dedicated to help families of the victims.

6. 06

   When will the bodies of the victims be handed over to families?

   The bodies of the 241 deceased in the tragic plane crash of the Ahmedabad-London Gatwick Air India flight will be handed over to families after the DNA testing to confirm their identities is completed.

   “The Gujarat’s Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) will jointly complete the DNA testing in the shortest possible time, after which the bodies of the deceased will be handed over to their families,” Amit Shah said, hours after the crash on Thursday afternoon.

7. 07

   A breakdown of the compensation that families of victims are likely to receive

   The Air India’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was insured so the tragic crash on Thursday afternoon at the Ahmedabad airport will not have any financial impact on the Tatas which own the airline, The Indian Express has learnt.

   The 242 passengers who lost their lives in the crash are expected to get suitable compensation from insurance companies. As per the Montreal Convention treaty, the Air India will have to pay a compensation of around Rs 1.5 crore each to the kin of victims. The Tata Group also announced Rs 1 crore each to the families.

8. 08

   Congress party condoles deaths in crash, says with nation in 'collective anguish, grief'

   On behalf of the Congress, the party’s general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh expressed condolences to the families of the victims killed in the Ahmedabad-London Air India flight crash.

   In a post on X, Ramesh wrote: “The Indian National Congress extends its deepest condolences to all the families bereaved and so devastatingly affected by the crash of AI-171 yesterday.” He added that the party joins the country in the “collective anguish and grief”. “We had hoped and prayed while awaiting confirmation of fatalities. The confirmation is grim news and the INC joins the nation in our collective anguish and grief over this most unfortunate and shocking tragedy,” his post read.