What to know after plane crash near Indian airport with 242 people on board

There appeared to be no survivors among the 242 passengers and crew aboard an Air India plane that crashed near a major international airport in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, the city’s police commissioner said Thursday.

Footage posted to social media shortly after the crash and verified by NBC News shows plumes of thick, black smoke rising from a civilian location to the south of the airport.

“It appears there are no survivors in the plane crash,” G.S. Malik, police commissioner for Ahmedabad, told The Associated Press, adding that “some locals would have also died” when the plane crashed into a residential area where offices were also located.

“Exact figures on casualties are being ascertained,” he said.

The flight crashed midday local time shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport with 242 people aboard.

Kanan Desai, a top city police official, later told Reuters that 204 bodies had so far been recovered from the crash site and brought to local hospitals. That figure could also include those who died on the ground from the impact, he added.

The plane’s tail could be seen protruding from the wall of a building in a picture from the crash site shared on X by India’s central police force. Other images showed rescuers standing next to charred wreckage and a downed tree near a residential complex.

The plane was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members, a spokesperson for the airline told NBC News.