The doomed Air India flight that crashed Thursday, killing 244 passengers on board, lost control immediately after taking off from the runway.
CCTV footage of the runway at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, in Ahmedabad, shows the moment the Boeing 787 Dreamliner lifts off of the ground at around 1:38 p.m., local time.
The plane, however, could be seen taking a dip just 30 seconds into the take off, with the plane losing all power and plunging into the residential area below.
The London-bound plane then explodes into an inferno.
The pilot aboard Air India Flight 171 made a “Mayday” call seconds after takeoff, officials said, but little could be done as the aircraft apparently lost power and plummeted.
This the first time that a 787 Dreamliner — Boeing’s newest plane — has been involved in a catastrophic crash since its debut in 2011.
Only a single passenger survived the blast, according to local officials.
The survivor was identified as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, a British-Indian citizen who lives in London.
He was found limping in the street amid the carnage after the passenger plane went down just moments after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport, he told the Hindustan Times from the hospital.
“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me,” The 40-year-old said.
“Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”
Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G.S. Malik said the plane, which crashed into a doctor’s hostel and other residential buildings, likely killed several more people on the ground.
Police have recovered at least 204 bodies from the crash site so far.
Among the passengers in the plane were 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were Britons, seven were Portuguese, and one was Canadian, Air India said.
“The scenes emerging of a London-bound plane carrying many British nationals crashing in the Indian city of Ahmedabad are devastating,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it “heartbreaking beyond words.”
British cabinet minister Lucy Powell said the government will provide “all the support that it can” to those affected by the crash as London and New Delhi officials investigate the tragedy.
Air India’s chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, said the airline is working on assisting first responders.
“At this moment, our primary focus is on supporting all the affected people and their families,” she said.
“We are doing everything in our power to assist the emergency response teams at the site and to provide all necessary support and care to those impacted.”
With Post wires