‘Terrible, horrific crash’: Trump offers help to India, says ‘anything we can do’

US President Donald Trump expressed his condolences over the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad and offered support to India. “It’s a big country, a strong country. They’ll handle it, I’m sure. I let them know, anything we can do, we’ll be over there immediately,” Trump said, adding that the United States is ready to extend all possible assistance.

Trump said, “The plane crash was terrible. I’ve already told them if there is anything we can do. It’s a big country, a strong country. They’ll handle it, I'm sure. But I let them know that anything we can do, we’ll be over there immediately. It was a horrific crash. It looks like most are gone. They actually may have a couple of survivors... Nobody has any idea what it might be.”

“We saw the plane. It looked like it was flying pretty well. It didn’t look like there was an explosion. Just looked like the engines had maybe lost power. That is a terrible crash. It’s one of the worst in aviation history...”

“I gave them a couple of pointers, we saw the plane, and it looked like it was flying pretty well, it didn’t look like there (could be) an explosion. It just looked like maybe the engines lost power,” Trump said.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft crashed on a government hospital hostel, five minutes after taking-off near Ahmedabad airport.

Addressing the media after the plane crash, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “There was around 1.25 lakh litres of fuel on the aircraft. The temperature was also very high. Because of which there was no chance to save anyone.”

Earlier, Air India confirmed that flight AI171 was carrying 242 passengers and crew members. Of these, 169 are Indian nationals, 53 are British nationals, 1 Canadian national, and 7 are Portuguese nationals.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft crashed five minutes after taking-off near Ahmedabad airport.