Plane that crashed in India reached and killed at least five on ground

Air India’s Boeing 787-8 was on its way to Gatwick airport in London. There were 242 passengers and crew on board, according to the airline. Local police reported that “more than 240” people died, among aircraft passengers and people on the ground.

The aircraft was with 169 Indians, 53 British, a Canadian and seven Portuguese, clarified Air India, as well as ten crew and two pilots, whose nationalities were not informed. After the announcement about the accident, the airline updated her photo to a black image on the networks, signaling mourning. Eleven passengers are children, according to the Minister of Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol.

The accident happened during the plane’s takeoff. Images circulating on social networks showed fiery wreckage and a dense black smoke rising to the skies near the airport. According to the records, the aircraft began takeoff at 1:38 pm (4:08 am Brasília) and fell five minutes later.

Request for help was made before the accident. According to the BBC, a “Mayday” call, which acts as an emergency code, was issued to the airport control tower shortly after takeoff, but no other communication was made by the aircraft after that.

The FlightTar24 monitoring platform lost the aircraft signal when it reached 625 feet (about 190 meters high). The plane spent less than a minute flying after takeoff, according to the platform’s record. The airport was closed immediately after the accident, but returned to work at the end of the day.