Ahmedabad, June 12 (IANS) The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane Flight AI-171 that met with a devastating fate on Thursday, just minutes after take-off from the city airport, was steered by highly experienced and seasoned pilots, both of whom had flying experience of running into thousands of hours.

The wide-body aircraft was operated by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal with about 8,200 hours of flying experience while his co-pilot was First Officer Clive Kundar, having logged a whopping 1,100 flying hours.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the passenger plane crashed immediately after take-off from Runway 23 of Ahmedabad.

As per ATC, the aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23. It gave a mayday call to the ATC soon after takeoff, however, it gave no response after calls were made by the ATC.

The London-bound aircraft was carrying 242 passengers and crew members on board. Out of these, 169 are Indian nationals, 53 are British nationals, 1 Canadian national and 7 Portuguese nationals.

Officials have not released any information about the number of casualties or survivors, however, the intensity of crash and the aircraft turning into a ball of fire has raised serious doubts about prospects of anyone being alive.

The flight, which took off at 1.39 p.m. crashed just minutes after take-off. It could barely climb 625 meters in the air before coming crashing down on a students’ hostel in the vicinity.

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu is personally monitoring the situation. Air India has also set up a dedicated passenger hotline number 1800 5691 444 to provide more information.

The Civil Aviation Ministry also set up an operational control room to co-ordinate all details pertaining to AI-171 crash. It also shared the given phone number – 011-24610843 | 9650391859 for the common public to reach out and seek details.

–IANS

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