One passenger in seat 11A (an exit row window seat) survived and walked out, but 241 passengers and crew died when the aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff. There were some who died on the ground.
The flight data recorder has been recovered.
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Our local news are all over this story. The plane was built locally and was one of the first Dreamliners built.
What a terrible tragedy. 
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Yes, it’s amazing that he survived.
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“The last communication from flight captain Sumeet Sabharwal to air traffic control was “Mayday … no thrust, losing power, unable to lift,” the UK’s Telegraph newspaper reported.”
Experts interviewed by our local TV stations noted that the wheels were down but flaps were retracted right before the crash. Malfunction? Human error? Sabotage? Hopefully the black box will provide some clues.
RIP, passengers and crew and the medical students who died on the ground. 
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BBC coverage:
It brings back memories of the Northwest Airlines crash in Detroit. There was one survivor and it may have been caused by flaps during takeoff.
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I read that a Boeing whistleblower had raised concerns about the 787 Dreamliner last year. But I don’t know if the issues he raised are related to this crash.
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@DadOfJerseyGirl and @ucbalumnus
My DH’s seat today:
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This reminds me of the novel Dear Edward about a child who is the sole survivor of a plane crash.
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That was a somber but excellent book.
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Some experts who viewed a higher resolution video of the aircraft descending before crashing saw what they think is the ram air turbine (RAT) deployed on the bottom of the aircraft. The RAT is automatically deployed to provide electric and hydraulic power if any of electric, hydraulic, or main engine power is lost. They also noted that the sound in the video resembled that if a propeller aircraft, which the RAT sounds like.
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Looks increasingly unlikely that there was any technical fault with the aircraft or the engines:
From the initial investigation report:
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Preliminary report released by the Government of India Ministry of Civil Aviation Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau:
It’s heart-rending to read the report.
It appears the accident was caused by the fuel switch being turned off just seconds after takeoff, leading to engine shutdown and a rapid loss of altitude. One pilot asked the other why he had shut it off, but the other said he hadn’t. The fuel supply was turned back on 12 seconds later but by then, it was too late.
I don’t think they’ll ever be able to determine whether the fuel was cut off accidentally or deliberately. Regardless, it’s such a tragedy.
It is heart-rending. There are actually two separate fuel switches, one for each engine…and both were turned off. It’s curious to me they didn’t identify which pilot said what (because the investigators know this info.) I assume they are doing deep background checks into both pilots.
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Yes, likely looking into mental health issues I suppose. They might also not have revealed who said what to protect the family’s privacy.
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Agreed. The final report will likely divulge which pilot said what and the results of the authorities’ investigation. Like you said though, we might never know what happened or why.
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There are multiple protections to prevent this from being done accidentally.
First, there are bars around the switches to minimize the chance of being hit accidentally.
Second, each switch must be firmly pulled out, to allow it to move past a physical detent, and then moved to the cutoff position. And this action has to be repeated for the other switch. Each action takes about a second, which is what the flight data recorders showed.
Not accidental.
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