More than 290 people are feared to have died after a plane bound for London crashed into a residential area shortly after taking off from an airport in India’s western city of Ahmedabad.

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.

The London-bound Boeing 787 struck a medical college hostel in a residential area of Ahmedabad minutes after takeoff Thursday, killing 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground. One passenger survived.