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At Least 290 People Killed in Air India Crash; A Closer Look at the Boeing 787; Families and Officials Want Answers; At Least One Survivor in Air India Crash; How Plane's "Mayday" Call Could Help Investigators. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired June 12, 2025 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Live from London, I'm Max Foster. Let's get to our breaking news this hour for you. And that is the horrific plane crash, of course, in Western India.

Local police are now saying at least one passenger on board the Air India flight survived incredibly. The newspaper Hindustan Times quotes the man as a British national saying he heard a loud noise 30 seconds after takeoff, at least 290 people have died according to Reuters.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was bound for London when it went down in a residential area near the Ahmedabad Airport. We want to warn you the video you're about to see you may find disturbing. You can see the plane struggling to stay airborne, then descending, then disappearing behind buildings and bursting into a fireball.

Authorities say the plane hit a doctor's hostel as it went down. About 50 to 60 students were there. Were taken to hospital, and that's according to the All India Medical Association. Teams from both the U.S. and the U.K. have been deployed to India to assist with a crash investigation.

Salma Abdulaziz is following the latest developments for us from London. And you know, our hearts go out to anyone affected by this, but there is a moment of apparent joy that came out of it as well.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that when we saw those initial images, of course, Max, of the scorched earth, of portions of the plane lodged in a building, of the huge fires, we thought it would only be a miracle if someone survived. And now, that miracle seems to have happened. One man, passenger seat 11A found in hospital by reporters. But there is also a tragedy in this, Max. He says his brother was also on board that plane. He doesn't know his fate.

We've also received the latest death toll. The latest death toll from a local police official who says that there is 294 people feared dead. That means that there are many more people who died on the ground in addition, of course, to the 240 -- nearly 240 souls on board that flight. This is a very global tragedy, of course. You had more than 50 nationals from the U.K., several nationals from Portugal, and a national from Canada in addition to more than 160 Indian nationals.

So, you're absolutely seeing this global response take place, starting of course with India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, who says he has deployed his top officials on the ground to provide that help and support. Air India has been setting up hotlines and help desks to respond to the questions of families who I'm sure right now are going through --

FOSTER: (INAUDIBLE) the guest name? Sorry.

ABDELAZIZ: Well, I'm sure right now we're going through a rollercoaster of emotion from hearing, of course, this news of the one miracle survivor. Now, for those families, again, seeking answers, this will begin to give them more questions as the airline's CEO had given a press conference a short time ago, Max, alluding to some passengers who were injured making it to hospital.

Now, you're looking also at the image of the plane, portions of the plane lodged in a building. That building is a doctor's hostel where medical students would've been gathering for lunch. We understand dozens of those students may have been killed or wounded and rushed to the nearby hospital. In addition, of course, to many other local residents who could have been wounded in that very fiery explosion.

I want to go through the timeline just one more time, because this happened so quickly. Almost instantaneously, the plane taking off around 1:40 local time. And less than a minute later, it loses signal. You've played that video where you see a plane that should have been gaining altitude instead nosediving, rather, to the ground, and ending in that fiery explosion and leading to the aftermath that you're seeing there, scorched earth, burned out buildings, blazes for these emergency workers to put out.

There's going to be an investigation and I think that's already underway. The U.S., Britain have sent investigators to help and aid with that investigation, but answers to an investigation will come later down the line. For right now, it is about answering the questions of those families that want to know if their loved one made it out. I'm sure this miracle survivor will give that sense of hope. Did my loved one make it out? And what happened? What went so terribly wrong? Max.

FOSTER: Obviously, the investigation will take months to get a full answer. But everyone seems pretty baffled about what happened here in the way that the plane came down. The weather was good. It was so shortly after takeoff.

[13:05:00]

You know, where do investigators start with this sort of, you know, answering the questions of the -- these poor grieving families?

ABDELAZIZ: I think what's terrifying is just how quickly things went wrong, Max. So, even though we're talking about this very tight timeline, right, the plane takes off less than a moment later, it loses signal in that short window. The pilot was able to make a mayday call, and that will be a crucial piece of evidence when it comes to putting together what happened here, piecing together the story of what took place.

We're also seeing portions of that plane whole. Now, it's going to look as if it almost dropped out of the sky. It reached an altitude of 625 feet only. Not very high, of course, and you can see that in the social media video. And then it crashed at a rate of 475 feet per minute. That is how quickly this plane went down.

But what it also means is that the plane was largely whole in many ways. So, the black box will be intact, those details will be intact. In fact, we even saw emergency workers pulling whole suitcases despite these huge blazes that you see from the wreckage. So, it is all about gathering that evidence. But you'll also notice, of course, beyond the fire and the damage that that would've caused to any evidence, to any scraps from this crash, there is also a scene on the ground of those crowds of people gathering as they would if they saw a plane crash, victims on the ground.

So, how do rescue workers, how do officials begin to seal off that site to make sure that anything that could lead to these answers is provided, is kept safe? It's a very complex operation, and that's why you are hearing that American investigators and British investigators are going to step in to help, of course, Boeing, which is the manufacturer of this aircraft, is also going to be involved in these investigations. So, it's going to be a very international effort led, of course, by India's civil aviation ministry.

And it's important to note here that India has been working to improve its airline standards, to improve its aviation standards in recent years. So, there's going to be a doubling down from the government to find out what went wrong, who is accountable, hold them accountable and ensure this never happens again. Max.

FOSTER: Salma, thank you. We're going to bring in Shawn Pruchnicki, an assistant professor at the Center for Aviation Studies and Integrated Systems Engineering at Ohio State University. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll talk about the video and what we can glean from that in just a moment. But first, this comment that we've had from the survivor that there was a loud noise and then the plane went down. What does that say to you? Because a lot of people on social media are speculating about that.

SHAWN PRUCHNICKI, AVIATION ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR, AIR SAFETY EXPERT AND PROFESSOR, CENTER FOR AVIATION STUDIES, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: Well, so -- well, I mean, loud noises can mean so many different things in an airplane, right? I mean, when we say loud, was it a type of like explosion loud? When you look at the video, there's nothing obvious as far as like an engine exploding, a bomb, anything like that. So, as far as that level of loudness, that doesn't appear to be the case, or was it something more internal, just within the airplane, within the fuselage, a particular system that broke? Something that would just be internal that you would hear something, a hydraulic system or a -- some type of pump or some type of mechanism that you wouldn't be able to see from a video from the outside. So, fortunately, when you hear reports like this, flight data recorders are able to record hundreds, if not a thousand different parameters that they very well might be able to see and coordinate timing wise with that noise, some type of disruption in one of those systems.

FOSTER: OK. I'm going to share the video now. And to warn everyone, it is very upsetting to see, but it's important to see because so many of the families were obviously asking what happened here. But there's lots of things that are being pointed out to me and I wonder if you could just explain a couple of things. First of all, some people saying it looks too heavy. Is that just the way it was moving through the sky?

PRUCHNICKI: No, I don't think it necessary looks too heavy. I mean, this is an airplane that has -- sounds fairly close to being full. I'm not sure how Air India has their aircraft configured for passengers, but it sounds fairly loaded. It's obviously going to have a lot of fuel on board just due to the distance involved.

[13:10:00]

The -- however, there are several things that are notable from this from this video. One is the landing gear is down. And that would be unusual this far after takeoff. And there's just a couple things that we need to be mindful about this, because I've heard several people talk about this already and there's a couple things that some folks aren't getting right about this.

There -- we need to be mindful about that. The landing gear is down, and that could mean three different things. One is they did not pull up the landing gear. In other words, when an aircraft achieves a positive rate of climb, which obviously they did because they made it to -- I think some people have been reporting 400, 600 feet, something like that. As soon as we achieve that positive rate of climb, that's when you pull the landing gear up.

So, either they did not pull the landing gear up for whatever reason, they were too occupied with an emergency or they were unable to pull the landing gear up or they did pull it up outside of the picture frame and notice that they were starting to go down and they put the landing gear back down. So, there's 3D different possibilities, so we can't say for sure that they never got the gear up.

There's a couple different possibilities. However, the one thing that is really, really important that I think investigators are going to focus on, we can't tell for sure from that video, but it really looks like the flaps are not down. Every time I've watched it, I've watched it about, I don't know, 15 times now at various resolutions. And we have to be cautious watching these videos, especially at that angle from the rear. I really wish we had a side video, but it really looks like a clean wing. In other words, it looks like the flaps are not down and the slats, in other words the -- in front of the wing, the part that hangs down.

That -- those are devices that helps the airplane have extra lift when it's at slower air speeds right after takeoff. Yes, there's a shot there.

FOSTER: Yes. But is that a human error issue or is that a plane issue or you just don't know?

PRUCHNICKI: Well, we just don't know. But here's what's important that everyone needs to understand is all of these airplanes are designed that if the pilots did not set the flaps, and there have been accidents over the years, 20, 30 years or more, where there are systems on board now, because of some of those accidents, where if pilots forget to set the flaps for whatever reason and this has happened, where that system will trigger and tell them that the flaps are not set.

And in fact, it has to be an auditory system. So, the airplane will tell you out loud that the flaps are not set, and there's different words that different airplanes use. But it will basically scream at you. It's very loud.

FOSTER: Yes. There's lots of backup systems.

PRUCHNICKI: So, if they did not set the flaps --

FOSTER: Yes.

PRUCHNICKI: I'm sorry?

FOSTER: I mean, there are the backup systems in place, of course. I just want to ask you one final question about the survivor. I've covered other air crashes and there have been survivors. They've nearly always sat at the back of the plane. This survivor was in seat 11A, towards the front of the plane. I mean, how extraordinary is that? And, you know, are you able to explain it in any way?

PRUCHNICKI: That is extraordinary. And that's the first I've heard that. I didn't realize that this gentleman was that far forward. By looking at the picture of the tail that I saw sticking out of the building that was extremely intact, I really expected him to be toward the rear.

We have seen this with accidents in the past that we're not able to explain, that I don't want to say luck of the draw, but that it's just a matter of where you're seated sometimes. And as debris comes through the cabin, the amount of forces that are transmitted through the cabin, sometimes you're in a location where those forces are tolerable and you happen to be the person that is, you know, receives those forces that are tolerable and has an escape path. And sometimes it's just -- that's the explanation.

But that's impressive. To be that far forward, especially an airplane that is going through a building, that's quite amazing.

FOSTER: It is unbelievable. I'm sure he's asking more questions than anyone about how he survived. Shawn, really appreciate you joining us with your incredible insights.

Well, still ahead, more on that breaking news out of India. The world's worst aviation disaster, actually in a decade, we now know. We'll focus on the Boeing 787 plane and its past safety record.

Plus, we'll look at the plane itself and what may have happened during the crucial moments after takeoff, all after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:15:00]

FOSTER: A miraculous tale of survival in the midst of utter tragedy. More now on our breaking news out of India. Police saying at least one passenger survived a deadly plane crash in the City of Ahmedabad that killed at least 290 people.

India's home minister is seen visiting the survivor here, a British national. There he is in his hospital bed. But earlier, there were videos of what appears to be him walking around. A reporter for CNN News18 says the man jumped out of the plane.

The newspaper, Hindustan Times, quotes him as saying he heard a loud noise 30 seconds after takeoff. We've obtained video of the actual crash. And a warning that you will find it disturbing, I'm sure. It shows the Boeing 787 Dreamliner struggling to stay airborne, then disappearing behind buildings and bursting into flames. 242 passengers and crew members were on board that aircraft. Indian aviation officials say pilots made a mayday call just after takeoff.

We're waiting for word for more casualties on the ground. Authorities say the plane hit a doctor's hostel when it crashed. CNN's Will Ripley filed this report on the crash a little earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Horrifying scenes in India. Huge plumes of smoke rising over the western city of Ahmedabad. Air India Flight 171, bound for London Gatwick disappeared from radar within seconds of departure. Eyewitnesses say the jet plunged and erupted into flames with 242 people on board. Flight tracking data shows the Boeing 787 lost signal at 625 feet, less than a minute after takeoff.

JEFFREY THOMAS, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: And this is a Boeing 787. This will be the first accident involving a 787, and it just celebrated a billion passengers carried safely over 11 years. It was basically had a flawless record up till today, no passenger has been lost on its Boeing 787.

RIPLEY: It's safety record, until today, virtually spotless. The crash site near a heavily populated area now swarming with emergency teams. India's civil aviation minister says all agencies are on high alert. Coordinating rescue and recovery. Gatwick Airport, where Flight 171 was supposed to land, confirm the incident. Instead of welcoming loved ones, families there are now contacting Air India's Emergency Support Center.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FOSTER: Thanks to CNN's Will Ripley for that report. More now on the survivor of the crash. Local media naming him as a Vishwash Ramesh. Earlier, CNN News18 managing editor Zakka Jacob brought us this update from New Delhi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAKKA JACOB, MANAGING DIRECTOR, CNN NEWS18: He's a British national. He was seated in seat 11A, which is the first row of the economy class. He was seated in a seat that was closest to the emergency exit. What he did, and he has recounted this to reporters, was he jumped off the aircraft right after impact, right after it crashed, he jumped off through the exit, a window, through the exit door, really, and then was seen limping. There's video footage now available of him in the immediate aftermath of the crash, seen limping towards an ambulance, and then an ambulance has taken him to hospital.

We can now report to you that Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national who was back here in India as a person of Indian origin. He was back here in India for a holiday, had spent a few days here in India, was going back home to London. He is the sole survivor and it is a miracle story that he managed to survive.

[13:20:00]

And what's also interesting is that from whatever we've seen in the passenger manifest, he was not supposed to sit in seat 11A, he was supposed to sit in a seat up 11J, something happened between the time of check-in and the time of the crash that he changed his seat. He got the window seat 11A, which was closest to the emergency exit. He jumped out and he survived. He is the only known survivor in this crash. All the others are suspected to be dead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Just incredible. Just ahead. How did this happen? That's a question everyone's asking about today's tragic crash of an Air India passenger jet. We'll be talking to an aviation expert next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Welcome back. I'm Max Foster in London. Here are the headlines we're watching today. One main one of course, but we're also looking at L.A. closing in on a week of protest against ICE immigration raids. The U.S. military says 700 Marines have completed training, and will be deployed to the area in the next couple of days, joining thousands of National Guard troops already in action there. A court hearing will be held later today on California's bid to limit how the Trump administration can use those forces

Palestinians traveling to get food were again met with gunfire on Thursday. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports more than 20 people were killed by Israeli fire near aid distribution sites in Gaza. The IDF says they fired warning shots at people they say posed a threat to Israeli troops. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson is scrambling to get the votes to formally approve Elon Musk's government cutback. Johnson hopes to have a vote in the next couple of hours where Congress would officially cancel almost $10 billion of spending on things like foreign aid and public radio and TV.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors today formally declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations. The IAEA says Iran has committed multiple violations in a stockpiling uranium that has almost been enriched to weapons grade. Iran says the IAEA report was politicized.

More now on the Air India plane crash. Local police are now saying at least one passenger survived the fireball when the jet went down. We need to warn you that you'll find this video disturbing, But Boeing saying it is, quote, "working to gather more information," after a Dreamliner jet carrying, 242 people crashed in Western India.

The Air India flight went down shortly after taking off, as you can see, from the City of Ahmedabad. The plane was bound for London's Gatwick Airport. You can see plumes of smoke billowing from the scene of the crash on the ground. A senior police officer says the plane hit a hostel at a medical college and hospital when it crashed.

At least 290 people have died according to Reuters and bystanders and families of victims are reacting with obvious shock and sorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BHAWNA PATEL, SISTER OF VICTIM (through translator): My sister was going to London. She was going to London. The plane crashed before she could reach London.

PRAMILA, MOTHER OF DOCTOR IN HOSTEL WHO SURVIVED (through translator): My son went to the hostel to have his lunch. The plane crashed at the hostel. Nothing happened to my son. I have talked to him. People died. I want to go inside to see my son.

[13:25:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My office is 200 meters away from the crash site. I heard a loud noise and came outside. I then saw a thick cloud of smoke. People started running in chaos. Now, that I have arrived here, I can see the situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Nada Bashir at London Gatwick Airport right now waiting. Nada, with families that were preparing to welcome their family members back, and in the meantime, they get this horrific news. How's the airport supporting them?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Max, that flight was due to land right about now at London's Gatwick Airport. And of course, early on in that flight, of course, a fatal crash taking place, family members would've seen the news early on in the morning. Of course, 53 British nationals were among those passengers, crew members on board at that flight, and this has been a hugely tragic day for the family members and loved ones of those on board with that flight, for those who have been waiting to perhaps meet with their loved ones, friends, family members today following the flight's expected arrival.

Of course, here at Gatwick Airport, the authorities are taking measures to provide support for those family members and loved ones. They have set up what has been described as a reception center here at the airport. So, that's in addition to the hotline that is available for those impacted. This is essentially a center for family members, relatives, loved ones to come and receive direct updates from airport officials and also, of course, to receive support.

And there is a real sense of anguish, of course, as we still wait for those final details around the casualties and the fate of those passengers on board. As you mentioned, we have that new figure, at least 290 people are said to have been killed, both onboard the flights and of course also in the surrounding area. The flight impacting, of course, a residential area.

Onboard the flight, 242 passengers, among them 169 Indian Nationals, 53 British Nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national. Remarkably, we are, of course, seeing those reports now of one survivor, a British national. But again, we are still waiting for more clarity on those figures.

Of course, earlier in the day, we did hear from the Air India chief who had described some of the injured being taken to nearby hospitals. So, questions around whether there may potentially be any more survivors. But the messaging that we've been hearing from officials in India is that it is likely the vast majority were killed in this fatal plane crash.

As I noted, it did also crash in a residential area. The -- a hostel for medical students at a nearby medical college was directly impacted. Dozens injured as a result, and at least four people killed, according to officials from the BJ Medical College and hospital.

So, again, this is a huge disaster for the local community around this airport. A real sense of anguish as they wait for answers as to what exactly caused this crash. As we know, of course, the plane crashed quite soon after takeoff. So, questions as to what may have led to that. I imagine that investigators will be very keen to speak to this one survivor to hear more about what took place on the plane.

What we know at this stage is that an investigating team from the United Kingdom, as well as one team from the United States will be traveling to India to provide support on the investigation front. And we've been hearing from world leaders pledging their support for the Indian authorities, including the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, who has said he has been receiving updates throughout the day.

We know, of course, according to the foreign office, that there has been a close level of coordination between the British government and the Indian authorities. The same can be said for the United States where the U.S. President Donald Trump has also pledged support for Indian authorities. But again, it is a still a huge moment of anguish as we continue to wait for answers, as we continue to wait for updates from the authorities.

FOSTER: Nada, thank you so much. The Air India flight went down -- that went down was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. That model faced some scrutiny last year, whistleblowers claims. Tom Foreman joins us with the details of the claims and the concerns. But the reality was it's had a -- it's had an incredibly good safety record up until now.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It absolutely has had. And there was no reason for anyone to believe with this aircraft that it was not going to safely make this trip from India over to Gatwick over here. It looked like it was headed that way, and yet, this thing went wrong.

This whistleblower thing that was -- that has come into the news happened about a year ago, and Boeing investigated and found that it really did not pose the threat, the whistleblower said. And indeed, again, this aircraft has had a very successful record. And yet, here's what happened. It took off here. It left the runway down in this area and crashed here less than the distance of the runway, frankly, it's very, very close here.

[13:30:00]

Max, when I look at the video of this carefully, I think this plane was only rising for about 12 seconds. So, really a dramatic change here on a plane where there was no reason to think that this would've happened.

FOSTER: OK. Tom, thank you so much. Benjamin Katz is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal covering global aviation. He joins us live from London. A lot of the shock here actually outside India and the families directly affected has been that a Dreamliner came down. Were you as surprised?

BENJAMIN KATZ, REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I mean, it is a moment in history for this aircraft. The 787 has been operating since about 2011, and it has had zero fatal accidents until today. In that sense, yes, I'm very shocked. Also, you know, just picking up the clues and looking at what potentially may have happened, although I caution that it's part as soon to say with any certainty, you know, what actually occurred.

But really kind of basic errors that you can even pick out, such as, you know, the landing gear being retracted too early. The -- oh, sorry, still being out and, you know, on the inverse, the flaps on the aircraft being retracted, appealingly, you know, seemingly too early. These are kind of quite basic things that, you know, the Boeing 787 is a very advanced aircraft and has a lot of mechanisms to kind of assure -- ensure that this kind of issues don't occur.

FOSTER: Yes, because, obviously, everyone's asking, was it the plane or was it the pilot? Don't want to speak ill of people who have passed, but that's a question we have to ask. And am I right in saying that most crashes that take off in landing are human error? KATZ: It's really -- it really depends. It's not necessarily a clear statistic. You know, I wouldn't want to, you know, lead viewers in either direction of this space. There's also the potential that, you know, there was an external force. I mean, the videos don't seem to show it, but we do know that, you know, bird strikes have brought on planes in the past. You know, other incidents like that.

Of course, flight crew error is definitely something that the investigators will be looking at and is definitely a question of concern. There also becomes a question of, OK, if it was an error from the flight crew, what could be changed in the cockpit or across the entire world's speed (ph) of aircraft that could prevent such a thing from happening again or prevent crew from making a similar mistake?

So, really, the investigation will really be, you know, multifaceted, looking at how can we protect -- prevent as an industry this from ever happening again.

FOSTER: If Boeing finds any indication that there was a problem with the aircraft, what's -- what -- how would they have to react? Because there are people obviously all over the world worrying now about getting onto one of these aircraft. As irrational as that might be, if you look at the numbers would they have to ground those planes if there's any indication?

KATZ: There has been precedent when, you know, there is an issue with an aircraft, a design bolt perhaps or even a manufacturing bolt where fleets have been grounded. But it really is worth stressing, you know, this aircraft was delivered about 11 years ago and has been operating for 11 years without any kind of incident.

The aircraft type, so the broader family of the 787 Dreamliner has been in operation since 2011, so 14 years without a fatal incident. I think at this stage it really -- you know, I wouldn't want to, you know, undermine viewers' feelings about flying and how they approach it. But, you know, the industry is still very safe. This aircraft, there is no reason to suspect otherwise.

If it were to turn out that there is a fault with the aircraft, I mean, that would be a very, very big deal for Boeing. Boeing is, you know, coming out of years of crisis. The last few weeks has been quite a steady run for them. We've had, you know, some quite good news, some good kind of momentum from the company in terms of fixing some of the issues they've had with production, with quality control. Big question marks as to, you know, if there is anything found that could implicate Boeing, you know, if that could set them back. But again, just to stress, you know, there is no evidence yet at all in any direction of where to place blame.

FOSTER: And Air India, as I understand it, has a pretty good safety record, a huge number of flights. Obviously, there have been incidents, but they are incredibly busy airline, aren't they, with all the internal flights as well as the external?

KATZ: Yes, absolutely. And Air India also -- you know, it was owned by the state for about 70 years, I think is the number. In 2022, it was bought out by Tata Group, which is, you know, a massive multinational Indian conglomerate. They've been turning around the carrier. They've purchased, you know, billions of dollars' worth of both Boeing and Airbus planes that they're starting to roll out. They've been refreshing their cabins. They're really trying to, you know, not just privatize the airline, but really elevate it and feed this really rapidly growing aviation market in India, this kind of untapped market.

And this is -- this kind of -- is this where -- you know, this crash, you know, raises a lot of questions. You know, how does an Indian market where there are so many people that don't fly regularly, you know, how do they respond to this? How does that hang on into, you know, the collective memory as we go through the next few years and as the industry tries to grow?

[13:35:00]

FOSTER: OK. And just a thought, I had a few questions about the money that Tata have offered families of victims. It -- you know, people questioning whether or not people should receive that because would that disqualify them from proper payments later on? But it wouldn't, would it? As I understand it, this is just Tata -- it's a goodwill gesture, as I can understand it. It wouldn't affect people's future claims?

KATZ: I would say I'm -- you know, I'm not a legal specialist in that sense, but we have seen in the past that when there have been incidents, there have been kind of preliminary, you know, goodwill, as you say, payments that are made that are then potentially, you know, added to from, you know, either the airline or manufacturer or depending on where the investigation leads.

So, yes, I think at this stage, you know, goodwill. There's -- you know, was described before by your colleague and by, you know, colleagues on the ground. You know, this is really a moment of despair for the country and I think that what the companies are trying to do is where they can kind of alleviate, you know, the trauma and the distress that, you know, this really visceral crashes has caused.

FOSTER: OK. Thank you so much for joining us. I mean, there are so many unanswered questions, but people are asking them. So, we have to go through them. Benjamin Katz, thank you so much.

Still ahead, India's prime minister calls the tragedy heartbreaking and beyond words. We'll have more on the deadly plane crash in Western India.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:40:00]

FOSTER: Back to our top story this hour. 290 people are feared dead after a plane crash in Western India. The Air India flight was bound for London Gatwick, but went down shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad Airport. The jet hit a housing unit for a local hospital when it went down. You can see the tail sticking out. People staying there, I believe, to be amongst the dead of course.

Police have reported that at least one man did survive the crash. Local media named the survivor as a British national, Vishwash Ramesh. He reportedly told them 30 seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise, and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.

I want to bring in aviation analyst Scott Hamilton right now. He joins us from Paris. Thank you so much for joining us. We're just getting a few more details about this sole survivor. If I could ask you about it first, because our -- one of our reporters. an affiliate station, described how he was booked into one seat but moved to another seat near the window, which also happened to be near an emergency exit. And he managed to just get out of the exit after the plane crashed. Everyone asking how he did it. I guess you can't really answer that, but maybe some seats are safer, just --

SCOTT HAMILTON, AVIATION ANALYST: Yes, you know, interestingly enough, I flew over to Paris from Chicago yesterday, this morning on a 787, and I sat and seat 10A, a different configuration, but basically the same location on the airplane. And there's just no explaining why one passenger can get out of a horrific crash like this, and being next to that emergency exit obviously had to make a world of difference for him.

FOSTER: It's normally people sitting at the back of the plane, isn't it, that survive?

HAMILTON: Yes. Now, this airplane, by the video, looked like it kind of pancaked into the ground as opposed to, you know, a nosedive or hitting a barrier like that. 737 did out -- in Indonesia a couple of months ago. It looked like it just kind of, you know, landed on these buildings. So, I think that was part of it.

FOSTER: Yes. So, the seats nearer the middle would've been safer as opposed to the seats at the back if it was nosediving?

HAMILTON: Yes. Yes.

FOSTER: In terms of --

HAMILTON: Very sad.

FOSTER: Yes. I mean, it's just incredible, isn't it? And -- but you know, the blessing that he survived. But the other blessing is he'll be able to answer some questions from investigators. They'll want to speak to him as soon as possible, I presume.

HAMILTON: Yes, but I don't think he'll be able to tell you anything particularly useful. What's really going to be important here is the recovery of the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, which are stored in the tail of the airplane, which, you know, look pretty intact.

So, hopefully, they'll be able to get those boxes recovered very quickly and let's hope that they're not sufficiently damaged that it will take a great deal of effort to read them out. If those boxes are available and can be read out pretty quickly, we might have some, you know, pretty significant answers as early as Monday. But that's just if everything goes right with respect to those boxes.

[13:45:00]

I mean, it's so unfortunate, wasn't it, that it landed in a residential area. In terms of the investigation here, when you look at the video are you as fixated on the flaps on the wings as some of the other analysts I've been speaking to?

HAMILTON: That absolutely was the first thing that I -- stood out to me was -- and there's now a second video out there that has the entire takeoff rule. And it didn't appear to me in that video either that the flaps were extended. And there have been accidents in the past where flaps and slats have not been extended on takeoff and the airplane got a little bit airborne and wobbled and then crashed. and these two particular crashes were inside airport property.

This airplane actually got off the ground before it started to descend a little bit, then it came back up into descended again. And there are some that suggest that might be a power issue to see that. Again, you get these black boxes and that'll tell you what the engines were doing. We'll hear what the pilots were doing. We'll hear what the controls were doing with a cockpit voice recorder. Those are very sensitive microphones.

FOSTER: Well, we know that the pilot put out a mayday. It was a very short amount of time, wasn't it, to deal with this crisis, but they clearly realized very quickly there was a problem and they were trying to deal with it. So, they were aware this sort -- you know, they were try -- they were clearly grappling with something.

HAMILTON: Yes, I haven't seen any report about what the mayday might have been referring to. One of the things that will happen pretty quickly is that the investigators will get ahold of the recordings from the air traffic control, the tower and maybe there were some additional words on that mayday call that will give a better hint. But again, that will also show up in the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder as to what the mayday was.

All we know is that they encountered an emergency. They reported an emergency. We know what time they reported the emergency, but at this stage, we don't know what that emergency was about.

FOSTER: We've seen the tail sticking out of the building. You were right to point out how intact it is. It's almost eerie, isn't it, seeing it sticking out of the building. It's obviously not safe to get to at the moment. But good news, as you say, that the black boxes are in there and they weren't part of the fireball because the other issue, obviously, is the plane was full of fuel. It was just sitting off to the U.K.

HAMILTON: Yes, it was a fully loaded airplane that initially Flightradar suggested that maybe the plane took off about midway down the runway, but on further processing of its data they determined that the airplane used the full length of the runway. That's an 11,500-foot runway, roughly. The plane had a full load of passengers, probably a full -- pretty close to a full load of fuel. I don't know what the distance between the city and India is and London, but, you know, many hours.

And it -- this just happened at a bad time. There's never a good time, but this happened at a particularly bad time, low altitude, heavily loaded airplane, fully loaded airplane. Just everything that could go wrong did go wrong, I think.

FOSTER: Yes, our thoughts with everyone involved. Scott, really appreciate your analysis. Up next, we'll look a bit more about the -- into the mayday call. It could help investigators figure out why the flight actually fell out of the sky and landed right there in that medical building.

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[13:50:00]

FOSTER: More now on our breaking news. Police say there's at least one survivor from the air crash in India. The Hindustan Times identifies him as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British National, and says he is receiving treatment. We want to show you what he survived. You're going to find this video disturbing because the plane carrying 242 people crashed here moments after this in Western India.

The Air India flight went down shortly after taking off, as you can see from Ahmedabad. It was bound from London's Gatwick airport. You can see plumes of smoke then billowing up from the scene of the crash, it was full of fuel. A senior police official says the plane hit a hostel at a medical college. It was a hospital used as a medical college as well, and people were there and staying there when it crashed. At least 290 people killed in total.

Reactions pouring in from world leaders. A short while ago, U.S. President Donald Trump had this to say about the crash.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The plane crash was terrible. I've already told them anything we can do. It's a big country, a strong country. They'll handle it, I'm sure, but I let them know that anything we can do, we'll be over there immediately. But it was a horrific crash. It looks like most are gone. They actually maybe have a couple survivors, which is -- just heard.

But that was a horrible crash. Nobody knows. Nobody has any idea what it might be. I gave them a couple of pointers. I said, maybe you'll look at this or that. You know, we saw the plane. It looked like it was flying pretty well. It didn't look like there was an explosion. It just looked like the engines maybe lost power. But boy, that is a terrible crash. It's one of the worst in aviation history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The pilots issued a mayday call to air traffic controllers shortly after takeoff. CNN's Richard Quest says that call could help investigators figure out why the plane went down.

[13:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: That's very significant because it means they knew they were in trouble. It means something went wrong. It means they had a warning that something was happening. Now, we start to refocus slightly. That does it mean we have a better idea of what that was? No. But it means that they were aware in the cockpit and that also means that the cockpit voice recorder will have good information in a sense of what was happening. You'll hear noises, you'll hear the crew talking to each other saying, this has happened, that's happened. You'll actually hear them say the mayday call as they as they deal with it. And then you'll hear, and you'll see on the other recorders. So, yes, that is significant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN will continue to follow this tragedy, of course. Bringing you updates as we get them throughout the rest of the day. Do stay with CNN. I'll have much more on the plane crash in Western India after the break.

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