The DGCA's directive for enhanced safety inspection had come a day after an Air India 787-8 aircraft crashed moments after take-off from the Ahemdabad airport.

Air India flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 carrying 242 people, crashed after taking off from Ahmedabad on its way to London.

An Air India plane crashed into a medical college in Ahmedabad, killing people on the ground and leaving a sole survivor on the flight. Authorities said 269 died.

At the hospital in Ahmedabad, family members were giving DNA samples, waiting for official confirmation of their loss in the Air India disaster, and remembering their loved ones.

Tributes have been paid to a couple who were among the 53 Britons killed after an Air India flight bound for London crashed on Thursday. Jamie and Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, aged 45 and 39 respectively, were among the 242 on board the flight which crashed soon after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport.

The deadly crash of an Air India flight carrying more than 240 people on Thursday arrives after years of attempts to turn around the country’s flag carrier — which had been plagued by tragedy and financial losses under prior state ownership.