Relatives mourn tea vendor, Akash Patni, 14, who died in the Air India crash (Image: Getty)

Witnesses have described the terrifying moment an Air India plane crashed into the canteen of a medical college hostel in Gujarat. The London Gatwick-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner came down in a residential area of the northwestern city of Ahmedabad minutes after take-off on Thursday (June 12), killing 241 people on board and at least 32 on the ground. A British man is believed to be the sole survivor among those who were on the plane.

A doctor from the college said he and his colleagues were inside their building 500 metres away when they heard a deafening sound. He said they initially believed it was lightning but thought twice, given the 40C dry heat outside. Prince Kashni, 18, told the BBC he was a few metres away from the hostel when he and his brother, Krish, heard a noise.

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The Air India incident is one of the world’s worst plane crashes in decades (Image: Getty)

He said: “Within seconds we could see something that resembled a wing of a plane. We rushed to the scene, but the heat from the explosion was intense and we couldn’t enter the hostel.”

The siblings and a few other volunteers helped the police remove debris from the entrance, but when they reached the canteen it was filled with smoke and the air smelt of burning metal.

Eventually, they managed to make out the shapes of people, most of whom were alive, but badly injured and in shock.

A student told the broadcaster: “There was a huge bang and a horrible screeching sound. Next thing we knew, we were under huge boulders, stuck without anywhere to go… It was hard to breathe.”

Authorities in India have now started handing over the remains of the victims of one of India’s worst aviation disasters after identifying some through DNA tests.

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The jet crashed into the densely populated Meghani Nagar area near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel airport (Image: Getty)

Hundreds of relatives of the crash victims have provided DNA samples. Most of the bodies recovered were charred or mutilated, making them unrecognisable.

Rajneesh Patel, an official at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, said authorities have so far identified 32 victims through DNA mapping and their families were informed. He said the remains of 14 victims were handed over to relatives.

The victims’ families waited outside the hospital mortuary as authorities worked to complete formalities and transfer the bodies in coffins into ambulances.

Most of them have expressed frustration at the slow pace of the identification process. Authorities have said it normally takes up to 72 hours to complete DNA matching.

Alongside the formal investigation, the Indian government has set up a high-level committee to examine the causes leading to the crash.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement on Saturday (June 14) that the committee will focus on designing procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future.

Authorities have also begun inspecting Air India’s entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said on Saturday in New Delhi at his first news briefing since Thursday’s crash.

Mr Kinjarapu said eight of the 34 Dreamliners in India have already undergone inspection, adding that the remaining aircraft will be examined with “immediate urgency”.

Investigators on Friday recovered the plane’s “black box” digital flight data recorder from a rooftop near the crash site.

Paul Fromme, a mechanical engineer with the UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said the device is expected to reveal information about the engine and control settings, while the voice recorder will provide cockpit conversations.

The plane which crashed was 12 years old. There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts.