Vijay Rupani: The Boeing 787‑8 Dreamliner took off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 1:38 PM IST on route to London Gatwick. It issued a MAYDAY distress call approximately two minutes after takeoff and crashed near Meghani Nagar minutes later. The pilot had given a Mayday call to the ATC but the signal was lost when ATC responded back. This marks the first fatal crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner since its service entry in 2011 .
The crash claimed the lives of 242 passengers, comprising of individuals from various nationalities, including 169 Indians and 53 British, while also carrying a Canadian and seven Portuguese nationals.
Ahmedabad Airplane Crash: Check the devasted images and videos
This claim has been verified by at least three independent and credible journalists but the flight was in fact, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani (16th CM 2016–2021). Unfortunately, his passing is no longer just a rumor. He is the second Gujarat CM to perish in an air accident, after Balwantrai Mehta decades ago.
Vijay Rupani was Gujarat’s 16th Chief Minister from 2016 to 2021. A member of the BJP, he was instrumental in shaping the development trajectory of the state. Precisely six decades ago, Gujarat’s second CM Balwantrai Mehta died when the plane he was flying in was shot down.
In September in 1965, Balwantrai Mehta was piloting a Beechcraft from Ahmedabad to Mithapur when his aircraft was intercepted by the then-raging Pakistani Air Force and was shot down during the course of Indo-Pak war.
Earlier in 2009, the then AP CM YS Rajasekhar Reddy died in a chopper crash in the same Nallamala forest, caused by poor visibility and inclement weather.
In 2011 this was the fate that befell Dorjee Khandu, then chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, whose helicopter fell into a mountainside after encountering sudden stormy conditions.
An urgent inquiry has been launched by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), to be coordinated by the DGCA, Boeing and Air India. Even as we write this, rescue and recovery operations continue. Ahmedabad airport has started limited flight operations, and a green corridor was provided to speed up the injured and dead from the crash site.
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