More than 290 people on the plane and ground have been killed after an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London crashed into a medical hostel in Gujarat province, according to police officials.

One person, a British man, survived the crash. Ramesh Viswashkumar had been sitting near an emergency exit of the London-bound flight and managed to jump out, police said.

Flight AI171 crashed into a residential area shortly after taking off in the western city of Ahmedabad in the worst accident involving the US plane maker’s most advanced twin-aisle aircraft.

It was carrying 242 passengers and crew. Video footage shared on social media showed a giant plume of smoke engulfing the crash site.

It was not immediately clear what caused the accident. A video of the crash shows the plane with its nose pointed upward, sinking toward the ground before slamming into a medical college.

The aircraft was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, a wide body, twin-engine plane. It is the first Dreamliner to crash since going into service in 2009, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.

India’s CNN News-18 TV channels said the plane crashed on top of the dining area of state-run BJ Medical College hostel, killing many medical students. It showed a visual of a portion of the aircraft perched atop the building.

Visuals also showed debris on fire, with thick black smoke rising into the sky near the airport. The plane was headed to Gatwick Airport in the UK, Air India said.

“We have found 204 bodies, we are looking for more bodies,” Police Commissioner G.S. Malik told Bloomberg. “There is a chance that there may be survivors. 41 injured are being treated. These include people who were staying in the residential area.”

‘Loud noise’

Vidhi Chaudhary, another senior police officer, said police found one survivor who was in seat 11A, adding that there could be more survivors in hospital.

“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed,” 40-year-old Viswashkumar told the Hindustan Times, which showed a boarding pass for seat 11A in that name online.

“It all happened so quickly,” he told the paper from his hospital bed.

“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,” he said. “Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”

He said that his brother Ajay was seated in a different row on the plane. “He was travelling with me and I can’t find him any more. Please help me find him,” he said.

Police chief Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground. Federal minister C.R. Patil said the dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the main city.

“At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates,” Air India said on X.

A source told Reuters that the plane was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.

TV channels showed visuals of people being moved in stretchers and being taken away in ambulances.

According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad airport, the aircraft departed at 1.39pm (0809 GMT) from runway 23. It gave a “Mayday” call, signalling an emergency, but thereafter no there was no response from the aircraft.

India’s Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu posted on X, formerly Twitter, that rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts were being made to ensure medical aid and relief support at the site.

“We are on highest alert. I am personally monitoring the situation,” he said.

Potential fuel issue

Former FAA and NTSB crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti said it’s a mystery why the airplane was having difficulty climbing in the final moments of the flight.

Video of the plane from right before the crash does not show any smoke or fire, so he said it does not appear that a bird strike was an issue. And even if the plane lost one engine, the second engine should be able to carry it aloft, he added.

Guzzetti said it’s possible that both engines started to “roll back” and lose power at the same time.

“This happened on a (Boeing) 777 crash coming into Heathrow about 15 years ago. It was a dual engine roll back due to icing in the fuel. So there could be a fuel issue,” he said.

“Usually fuel contamination issues rear their ugly head during takeoff,” he explained.

The last fatal plane crash in India involved Air India Express, the airline’s low-cost arm.

The airline’s Boeing-737 overshot a “table-top” runway at Kozhikode International Airport in southern India in 2020. The plane skidded off the runway, plunging into a valley and crashing nose-first into the ground.

Twenty-one people were killed in that crash.