What we know so far about the Air India flight 171 crash

What has happened?

An Air India passenger plane bound for London’s Gatwick airport with more than 240 people onboard has crashed shortly after takeoff from the north-western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

Air India flight 171, a Boeing 787-8 (also known as a Dreamliner), came down in the residential area of Meghani Nagar five minutes after taking off at 1.38pm local time (0908 BST), Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of the Directorate of Civil Aviation, told the Associated Press.

Footage posted to social media showed the moment the plane crashed.

Social media footage shows moment Air India plane crashed – video

Footage from near the scene showed smoke billowing from the crash site, which was a building used as accommodation by doctors working in local hospitals.

Smoke rises above Ahmedabad in first images from Air India plane crash – video

The plane issued a mayday call to air-traffic control after takeoff. According to the Flightradar24 website, signal was lost seconds after takeoff when the plane had reached a height of 625ft.

Who was onboard?

Air India said 242 people were onboard, including two pilots and 10 cabin crew. Among those were 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese people and one Canadian, according to the airline.

Kidwai said 244 people were onboard – it has not been possible to reconcile the discrepancy.

What do we know about casualties?

The Ahmedabad police commissioner said there appeared to be no survivors from the plane and that there were also casualties on the ground. However, the Ani news agency – citing police – reported that one survivor had been found on the plane and that another was being treated for injuries in hospital.

Rescue personnel at the site told Reuters at least 30 bodies had been recovered from a building where the plane came down.