The termination of the airlines led to chaotic scenes at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata as the 211 passengers on the Boeing 777-200 LR tried to convince officials to let them reach their destination at the earliest.

There have been cases of a very small number of survivors in very serious accidents, but it is "very rare" for there to be only one, a professor told Newsweek.

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The aircraft struck a medical college hostel in a residential part of Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people on board.