He Was My Uncle's Son: Actor Vikrant Massey On Co-Pilot Of Plane That Crashed

After the horrific crash in Ahmedabad, actor Vikrant Massey has condoled the death of the first officer of the plane, who was the son of his uncle, and the other 240 people feared dead, saying his "heart breaks" for the families.

Air India flight AI 171 had 242 people - 230 passengers, 10 crew and two pilots - on board and, so far, there have been reports of only one survivor. The first officer was Clive Kunder, the son of Mr Massey's uncle Clifford Kunder.

In a post on Instagram, Mr Massey wrote, "My heart breaks for the families & loved ones of
the ones who lost their lives in the unimaginably tragic air crash in Ahmedabad today. It pains even more to know that my uncle, Clifford Kunder lost his son, Clive Kunder, who was the first officer operating on that fateful flight."

"May God give strength to you and your family uncle and to all deeply affected," he added.

The plane, a Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 which had 169 Indians, 53 British nationals, a Canadian and 7 Portuguese on board, crashed into the hostel of the BJ Medical College in Meghani Nagar just over 30 seconds after it took off from the Ahmedabad airport on Thursday. The plane exploded in a fireball at 1.38 pm, and at least five doctors and trainee doctors died at the hostel while many others were injured. 

Home Minister Amit Shah reached Ahmedabad and visited the site of the crash. He said the plane had 1.25 lakh litres of fuel and the temperature after it began burning was so high that there was no opportunity to save anyone. 

Expressing grief over the incident, he said, "The work of pulling out the passengers' remains is almost over. The task of collecting DNA from the bereaved families will take two or three hours and it will soon be over... We have informed the families that lost their loved ones."

Mr Shah also went to a hospital and met the lone survivor from the plane - 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British-Indian who was returning to the UK after a visit.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sources said, is likely to visit Ahmedabad on Friday morning.