INDIAN authorities continued investigations today into one of the country’s worst aviation disasters following the Air India plane crash which killed all but one of the 242 passengers and crew onboard.

Indian investigators recovered on Friday the digital flight data recorder, or the black box, of the Air India flight that fell from the sky and killed 241 people on board and several people on the ground, authorities said.

The London-bound Boeing 787 struck a medical college hostel when the plane crashed into a residential area of the north-western city of Ahmedabad minutes after takeoff Thursday.

The plane’s black box was recovered from a rooftop near the crash site and India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said that it had begun its work with “full force.”

Officials said most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition.

Black smoke billowed from the site where the plane crashed near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than five million and the capital of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.

“We are all devastated by the air tragedy in Ahmedabad. The loss of so many lives in such a sudden and heartbreaking manner is beyond words,” Mr Modi said on social media after visiting the site today.

“We understand their pain and also know that the void left behind will be felt for years to come.”

Sole survivor Vishwashkumar Ramesh met Mr Modi at a local government hospital today.

A medic said Mr Ramesh told him that immediately after the plane took off, it began descending and suddenly split in two.