London-bound Air India plane with 242 people on board crashes soon after take-off

NEW DELHI – More than 290 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London crashed soon after taking off from India’s western city of Ahmedabad on June 12.

Air India Flight AI171 was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew.

More than 290 people were killed, a police officer told Reuters.

Ahmedabad’s police chief commissioner G.S. Malik told the ANI news agency that emergency crews had found one survivor in seat 11A. He added that the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground.

The flight manifest shared earlier by the authorities said the passenger is Mr Viswashkumar Ramesh, who is British.

He was reported by India’s media as saying: “Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise, and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.

“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me,” he said. “Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”

He said that his brother Ajay had been seated in a different row on the plane. “He was travelling with me and I can’t find him any more. Please help me find him,” he said.

Flight AI171 entered a slow descent shortly after taking off, with its landing gear still extended, before exploding into a huge fireball upon impact.

It crashed on top of the dining area of the state-run B.J. Medical College hostel.

Eleven of the passengers on board the flight were children and two were infants, a report said, citing a source.

Air India said that among the passengers on board, 169 were Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian.

Among those killed in the crash was former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party confirmed on X.

The plane reached an altitude of 190.5m at a speed of 174 knots, according to data from Flightradar24, which said on X that it received the last signal from Flight AI171 at 08.08.51 UTC (4.08pm Singapore time), “just seconds after take-off”.

“It (The plane) gave a mayday call to ATC (air traffic control), but thereafter no response was given by the aircraft,” India’s Directorate-General of Civil Aviation said in a statement.

The aircraft involved is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with registration VT-ANB.

The aircraft was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kundar, who had 8,200 flying hours and 1,100 flying hours of experience, respectively.

US aerospace safety consultant Anthony Brickhouse said one problematic sign from videos of the aircraft was that the landing gear was down at a phase of flight when it would typically be up.

“If you didn’t know what was happening, you would think that the plane was on approach to a runway,” Mr Brickhouse said.

Aviation analyst Geoffrey Thomas told the BBC the position of the plane’s wing flaps as it took off might also have been an issue.

“When I’m looking at (the videos), the undercarriage is still down but the flaps have been retracted,” he said.

This means the flaps were in line with the wing, which he said is very unusual so soon after take-off.

“The undercarriage is normally retracted within 10 to 15 seconds, and the flaps are then retracted over a period of 10 to 15 minutes,” he said.

Weather conditions were “stable and clear”, flight safety expert Marco Chan told the BBC.

Surface winds were light, and visibility was 6km.

“There were no significant clouds or weather phenomena reported, with no indications of wind shear, storms or other adverse conditions that might have contributed to the incident,” said Mr Chan.

Images posted online showed debris on fire, with thick black smoke rising up into the sky near the airport, and people being moved on stretchers and taken away in ambulances.

The airport in Ahmedabad was closed temporarily to all flights, ANI News reported. It resumed operations four hours later.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X: “The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words.

“In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it,” he added. “Have been in touch with ministers, and authorities who are working to assist those affected.”

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said in a post on Facebook that “the loss of so many lives is heartbreaking”.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families who have lost loved ones, and to the people of India in this time of sorrow,” said PM Wong.

“We stand in solidarity with India and all those affected, including citizens from other countries who were on board. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement: “The scenes emerging of a London-bound plane carrying many British nationals crashing in the Indian city of Ahmedabad are devastating.

“I am being kept updated as the situation develops, and my thoughts are with the passengers and their families at this deeply distressing time.”

British Foreign Minister David Lammy said in a post on X that Britain “is working with local authorities in India to urgently establish the facts and provide support”.

Speaking in Parliament later on, he said the government has activated a crisis team in both India’s capital New Delhi and London.

Britain’s King Charles described the crash as an “appallingly tragic incident across so many nations”, in a post on X.

Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson expressed “deep sorrow about this event”.

“This is a difficult day for all of us at Air India, and our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, their families and loved ones,” he said.

Boeing’s woes

The last fatal plane crash in India

involved Air India Express

, Air India’s low-cost arm.

The airline’s Boeing 737 overshot a “table-top” runway at Kozhikode International Airport in southern India in 2020.

The plane skidded off the runway, plunging into a valley and crashing nose-first into the ground. Twenty-one people were killed in that crash.

The formerly state-owned Air India was taken over by Indian conglomerate Tata Group in 2022, and

merged with Vistara

, a joint venture between the group and Singapore Airlines, in 2024.

Tata Group said it would give 1 crore rupees (S$149,500) to the families of each person who was killed in the crash.

Boeing shares fell as much as 8 per cent in pre-market trading.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said it was ready to send a team with personnel from the National Transportation Safety Board to India to investigate the crash.

It was the first crash for the Dreamliner, which began flying commercially in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.

The plane that crashed on June 12 flew for the first time in 2013, and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said.

Boeing has been involved in several accidents in recent years, including two fatal crashes with Lion Air Flight 610 on Oct 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019.

Early in 2024, a 737 Max aircraft

lost a door panel during flight

. While there were no fatalities, the accident plunged Boeing into a deep crisis.

Air India operates 34 Boeing 787 aircraft, according to data from aviation consultant Cirium. They range in age from just over two years to nearly 14, with most more than a decade old.

In all, the airline has 192 Boeing and Airbus jetliners in its fleet. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG