SINGAPORE: Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan on Thursday (Jun 12) expressed their condolences to India over the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, which killed more than 240 people.
Briton Ramesh Viswashkumar is the only known survivor out of the 242 people onboard. According to Indian police, he had been sitting near an emergency exit of the London-bound flight and managed to jump out.
In a letter addressed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Wong, who is also Singapore’s finance minister, said that he was deeply saddened to learn of the crash.
“On behalf of the government of Singapore, I extend my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims of the crash,” he added.
“In this time of sorrow, Singapore stands in solidarity with the Republic of India and the countries whose citizens were impacted by the devastating incident.”
Dr Balakrishnan also wrote to Indian counterpart Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, extending his deep condolences.
“My heartfelt sympathies are with the people of India and the families who have lost their loved ones in this tragedy,” he said.
London-bound Air India Flight AI171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad airport into a medical college hostel in the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.
Indian nationals, Britons, Portuguese and a Canadian were among those on board.
