There were 242 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian. At least eight local people, including four medical students, living in a residential area of Ahmedabad where the plane came down have also died, a senior health official told the BBC.

Safety experts said investigators would be looking at why and how the plane started descending during its take off.