Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], June 13 : Thakur Ravi, who works as a cook at the undergraduate mess of BJ Medical College, where AI-171 had crashed into, said his mother and two-year-old daughter have been missing since the Air India plane crashed into the college complex a day ago.
Thakur Ravi, his mother, and her wife used to cook at the UG students' mess at the BJ Medical in Meghaninagar.
"In this accident, my mother, Sarlaben Pralhadji Thakur, and my two-year-old daughter, Adyaravi Thakur, are still missing after the plane crash. "My mother, my wife, and I used to cook at the UG students' mess," he told media persons.
A local who resides near the AI-171 crash site said, "...My house is located 100-200m away from the crash site. The fire was still burning when I arrived...It was a horrible sight to witness. There were half-cut and completely burnt bodies all over the area... Meghani Nagar has active roads. The situation of local commuters is still not known..."
Another local said, "My house is 700m away from the crash site. We got to know that a massive fire had broken out...I reached the spot and I saw that the police, the fire department and a lot of local people, including workers of the BJP, have also come there...It was a very horrible scene, as everywhere there were bodies, completely burnt bodies."
Meanwhile, Gujarat ATS recovered a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) from the debris of the Air India plane that crashed yesterday in Ahmedabad.
An ATS personnel said, "It's a DVR, which we have recovered from the debris. The FSL team will come here soon."
The AI-171 Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 aeroplane 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 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.
Immediately after departing Runway 23, the aircraft crashed outside the airport perimeter. An official said heavy black smoke was coming from the accident site.
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.
He informed that the Indian government was also constituting a high-level committee of people with expertise in multiple disciplines to examine the crash incident and devise ways to strengthen aviation safety by preventing such incidents in the future.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), a federal agency authorised by Congress to investigate civil aviation accidents in the United States (US), is gearing up to send a team of investigators to India to assist with probing the deadly Ahmedabad plane crash.
The Tata Group has announced a compensation of Rs 1 crore for the families of each person who lost their lives in the crash.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday visited the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and met with Vishwashkumar Ramesh.
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.