Former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani died on Thursday after an Air India flight carrying 242 people, including him, crashed near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. The confirmation was made by Union Minister of Jal Shakti and Gujarat BJP President C.R. Paatil on Thursday evening.
Rupani, a senior BJP leader, served as the chief minister of Gujarat from 2016 to 2021 after securing a win in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly elections from the Rajkot constituency.
The ill-fated flight, AI 171, was bound for London and departed from Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon. According to Air India, it was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian national, along with two pilots and 10 cabin crew members.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off at around 1:47 pm, slightly behind schedule. The aircraft crashed just nine minutes after receiving clearance for take-off. Visuals of the crash, widely circulated on social media, show the plane crashing and bursting into flames behind a cluster of concrete buildings in Ahmedabad.
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