In the plane that crashed in India, there were 169 Indians, 53 British, and 7 Portuguese.

New Delhi.- At least 169 Indian citizens, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian were traveling on the Air India commercial airline flight that crashed this Thursday in the Indian city of Ahmedabad, shortly after taking off bound for London, according to the airline.

"The flight, which took off from Ahmedabad at 13:38 hours, was carrying 242 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 787-8. Of the passengers, 169 were Indian citizens, 53 British, 1 Canadian and 7 Portuguese," the airline said in a statement.

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The airline confirmed that the Boeing 787-8, which was operating flight AI-171 bound for London-Gatwick, was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Indian civil aviation authority, the aircraft with registration VT-ANB was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a pilot instructor with 8,200 flight hours, and First Officer Clive Kundar, with 1,100 hours of experience. The air traffic controllers' report states that the plane took off from runway 23 at 13:38 Indian local time (08:08 GMT), according to the regulator. Immediately afterwards, the crew issued the emergency call, but did not respond to communications before crashing outside the airport perimeter. A thick column of black smoke is visible at the accident site, in the Meghaninagar area, and the authorities have closed several roads to facilitate access for rescue teams. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel expressed his "deep anguish" over the accident via the social network X and assured that he had given "instructions to immediately initiate emergency rescue and relief operations." Patel ordered to give "absolute priority" to the treatment of the injured and the creation of a green corridor for their rapid transfer to hospitals. The Indian Home Minister, Amit Shah, has contacted the state leader to assure the "full support of the Central Government" and the deployment of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams to collaborate in rescue efforts. To assist family members, Air India has established an emergency telephone line. From the UK, Gatwick Airport confirmed that the flight was scheduled to land at 18:25 local time (17:25 GMT). The airline assured it was providing its "full cooperation to the authorities investigating this incident", the causes of which are still unknown.