India, June 13 -- Gujarat's Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon witnessed one of the catastrophic aviation disasters when Air India's London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (AI171) crashed near a densely populated locality just 33 seconds after takeoff, killing at least 260 people.

The Ahmedabad plane crash - India's deadliest in three decades - occurred barely 3km from the city's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The aircraft, carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members, rammed into a doctors' hostel of BJ Medical College in the Meghani Nagar area, turning the structure into a charred wreck. Among the victims was former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani.

In a statement, Air India said the Boeing aircraft had 169 Indian passen...