An aviation expert has told the Daily Express that take off is the most dangerous time for an aircraft after an Air India plane crashed less than a minute after it departed. The doomed Boeing 787 was en route to London Gatwick when it crashed into a residential area less than a minute after takeoff.

Footage online shows the plane descending in a controlled manner before dropping out of view and bursting into flames. Rhys Jones, Aviation Editor at Head For Points said: “Take off is the most dangerous part of any flight, the engines are at maximum thrust and you are at low altitude so if something goes wrong it becomes very difficult to react. You can’t increase the thrust as you are already at or close to the maximum and you are at low altitude so your options are limited.

“Based on that video, they are likely only at around 600ft and at that kind of height, even if you land you won’t be going far, you can't turn around and go back to the airport.”

Jerry Dyer, the founder of Big Jet TV concurs with the assessment.

He said: “You have to remember the plane is very heavy at the point it crashes. It is flying from India to London so it has a full fuel tank and is full of passengers.”

Rescue teams are currently working at the site of the crash, with footage showing smoke and devastation in a built up area.

Indian journalist Hemant Rajaura has given an update from the crash site in Ahmedabad.

He said: "Doctors say they’ve never seen such mass casualties — chaos in emergency wards, non-stop admissions, and critical injuries everywhere. The situation at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital is dire after the plane crash."

Air India said in a statement: "Captain Sumeet Sabharwal is an LTC with 8,200 hours of experience. The co-pilot had 1100 hours of flying experience.

"As per ATC, the aircraft departed from Ahmadabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23. It gave a mayday call to ATC, but thereafter, no response was given by the aircraft to the calls made by ATC.

"Aircraft immediately after departure from Runway 23, fell on the ground outside the airport perimeter. Heavy black smoke was seen coming from the accident site."