Air India Crash
AHMEDABAD, India, June 12 (Reuters) - More than 240 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London crashed moments after taking off from the city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, authorities said, in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, with 242 people on board, which was headed for Gatwick Airport, south of the British capital, had only one survivor after it crashed onto a medical college hostel during lunch hour.
Last night, India announced a formal investigation into the Air India crash. Federal Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said
that India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has initiated the investigation in line with international protocols."Additionally, the government is constituting a high-level committee comprising experts from multiple disciplines to examine the matter in detail," Kinjarapu said in a post on X. "The committee will work to strengthen aviation safety and prevent such incidents in future." On Thursday, Chris Rocheleau from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US had said that an "expert team" was on its way to India to help investigate the crash.UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer also said a team from the country had been dispatched to Gujarat to join the investigation.Last month, Boeing celebrated carrying its billionth passenger on the 787 Dreamliner - an impressive feat given it only launched 14 years ago.
Until today's tragic Air India crash in Ahmedabad, the model was a mainstay of intercontinental travel and had an exemplary safety record.So far, there is nothing to suggest any fault on Boeing's side today in India. A much fuller picture will come once the plane's black boxes - the electronic recording devices that store vital flight information - have been recovered.One pilot I spoke to said that nowadays it's rare for a manufacturer fault to cause a fatal incident.It's also important to remember that when you fly commercially, you will almost always either be on a Boeing or an Airbus model as the plane-making industry operates as an effective duopoly.Even so, Boeing has found its name associated with yet another tragic aviation incident.
It was just two months ago in April, that Amaan Mansuri took the same AI71 flight that crashed today to return to London, where he works.
“I had come down to Ahmedabad to celebrate Eid with my family. I’ve taken the same flight, same route three times before, it was like a routine for me and I’ve never felt unsafe.”
Until now. Mansuri says he’s "shocked, terrified and in disbelief" since he heard about the crash.
"Sitting here, I am still processing what happened. I wonder if I’ll be able to take the flight ever again."
- Flight was bound for London's Gatwick Airport
- Police say plane crashed on doctors' hostel
- More than 240 dead, police say
- Airline confirms one passenger survived
- First fatal crash of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
The sole survivor is a British national of Indian origin and is being treated in a hospital, the airline confirmed. The man told Indian media how he had heard a loud noise shortly after Flight AI171 took off.
"We are still verifying the number of dead, including those killed in the building where the plane crashed," Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer, told Reuters.
She said the death toll was more than 240, revising down a previous toll of 294 as it included body parts that had been double counted. It was not immediately clear how many of the dead had been on the aircraft or on the ground.
The only known surviving passenger was in seat 11A, next to an emergency exit, Chaudhary said, adding that there could be more survivors in hospital."Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed," 40-year-old Ramesh Viswashkumar told the Hindustan Times, which showed a boarding pass for seat 11A in that name
online."It all happened so quickly," he told the paper from his hospital bed."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, was seated in a different row on the plane. "He was travelling with me and I can't find him anymore. Please help me find him," he said. Ahmedabad police chief G.S. Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground. The dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the main city.
Relatives have be
en asked to give DNA samples to identify the dead, state health secretary Dhananjay Dwivedi said. Parts of the plane's fuselage were scattered around the smouldering building into which it crashed. The tail of the plane was stuck on top of the building. The passengers included 217 adults, 11 children and two infants, a source told Reuters. Air India said 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian. It was the first crash for the Dreamliner, a wide-body airliner that began flying commercially in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. The plane that crashed on Thursday flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said.
CRASH JUST AFTER TAKE-OFF
CCTV footage showed the plane taking off over a residential area and then disappearing from the screen before a huge fireball could be seen rising into the sky from beyond the houses.
"My sister-in-law was going to London. Within an hour, I got news that the plane had crashed," Poonam Patel, a relative of one of the passengers, told news agency ANI at the government hospital in Ahmedabad.Ramila, the mother of a student at the medical college, told ANI her son had gone to the hostel for his lunch break when the plane crashed. "My son is safe, and I have spoken to him. He jumped from the second floor, so he suffered some injuries," she said. U.S. 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 plane was on approach to a runway," Brickhouse said.
Indian Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said that a formal investigation has been initiated by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau."The government is constituting a high-level committee comprising experts from multiple
disciplines to examine the matter in detail," he added.Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a note to employees that was seen by Reuters that he and the head of Boeing's commercial airplane division had cancelled plans to attend next week's Paris Air Show, the industry's biggest event of the year.Before Thursday's crash, Ortberg was heading to Paris having made considerable progress on his efforts to rebuild trust in the company following multiple in recent years.Now, a team of Boeing experts is ready to go to India to help investigators there, he said. Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the investigation would take time and expressed "deep sorrow" about the incident.Boeing's shares fell 5% in the crash's wake.Aircraft engine-maker GE Aerospace said that it would put a team together to go to India and analyse cockpit data, India's CNBC TV18 reported.
The U.S. transportation secretary said the Federal Aviation USA Administration was working with Boeing and GE in the investigation.Britain was also working with Indian authorities to establish the facts around the crash and to provide support to those involved, the country's foreign office said.
"The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X. "It is heartbreaking beyond words." Gujarat is Modi's home state.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said images of the crash were "devastating". A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said King Charles was also being kept updated.
U.S. President Donald Trump called the crash "terrible".
INDIA'S FIRST CRASH SINCE 2020
Ahmedabad Airport, which suspended all flight operations after the crash, said it was operational again but with limited flights. The airport is operated by India's Adani Group conglomerate.
The last fatal plane crash in India, the world's third largest aviation market and its fastest growing, was in 2020 and involved Air India Express, the airline's low-cost arm.
The airline's Boeing-737 overshot a "table-top" runway in southern India, skidded and plunged into a valley, crashing nose-first into the ground and killing 21 people.
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.
An Air India plane travelling from India to London crashed within moments of take-off on Thursday, killing 241 passengers and crew, and more people on the ground.The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which took off from the city of Ahmedabad, in western India, ploughed into a residential area, hitting a hospital complex and medical student hostel.One passenger survived the disaster - a British national, who was sitting in seat 11A and who later told family he had no idea how he walked away.It is not yet clear what caused the crash, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as "heartbreaking beyond words".
Officials warned the death toll could rise in what was quickly described as one of the deadliest aviation disasters in India's history.Air India Flight AI171 departed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 13:39 local time (08:09 GMT), and was due to touch-down at London's Gatwick Airport at 18:25 BST.
There were 230 passengers on board, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese citizens, one Canadian and 12 crew members.The local police chief told the BBC that 204 bodies had been recovered so far - but it is not known how many of those victims were on the plane or were on the ground.Images from the scene show debris scattered across a large crash zone, with parts of the aircraft embedded in buildings."Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise... it all happened so quickly," he told local media from hospital.His cousin, Ajay Valgi, said Mr Ramesh called his family to say he was "fine", but he does not know the whereabouts of his brother, also called Ajay, who was on the plane with him.
Thursday's incident was the first fatal crash involving a 787 Dreamliner, first introduced in 2011.Boeing said in a statement that it "stands ready" to support the investigation, which is being led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau."We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected," the bureau said.US and British investigators will travel to India, with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) saying it will assist Indian authorities.India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the aircraft issued a mayday call seconds after take-off.It lost contact with air traffic control shortly thereafter, crashing just outside the airport's perimeter.
The crash site lies within a medical campus with 10 specialised centres. The BBC's Sachin Pithva described scenes of chaos, with rescue workers retrieving the remains of those who perished.Thick smoke was still billowing from the buildings hours after the crash, and passengers' passports were strewn around, he reported.Gujarat's Additional Chief Secretary for Health confirmed the aircraft struck the students' hostel and staff quarters of Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Civil Hospital.
Air India said in a statement that 241 people on board the plane were confirmed to have died.
“Air India offers its deepest condolences to the families of the deceased. Our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of all those affected, their families and loved ones,” the airline wrote on social media.
At least one person survived the crash, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said. A senior police officer, Vidhi Chaudhary, told the Reuters news agency that the survivor, named as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, had escaped from an emergency exit. Indian Police Commissioner GS Malik was quoted as saying that Ramesh was being treated in hospital.
"It crashed into the hostel mess and then bounced off on to one of the hostel buildings," the hospital's dean, Dr Meenkashi Parekh, told the BBC.
The crash happened at lunchtime when many students were in the canteen, she added. Photos show a huge part of the plane stuck in one of the hostel buildings, and a dusty, deserted mess hall with plates of uneaten food still on the tables."Most of the students escaped... but the building caught fire and the smoke was extremely thick. So, 10 to 12 students were trapped," the dean said.She added it was possible that several students had been killed. Officials said dozens were in hospital.Earlier, Malik told Reuters that 204 bodies had been recovered from the crash site. He said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground.Footage showed smoke billowing from the crash site. Parts of the plane’s body were scattered around the building into which it crashed, photographs and videos from the area showed. The tail of the plane was stuck on top of the building.
Mayday
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad’s airport, the aircraft gave a mayday call, signalling an emergency, but after that, there was no response, Reuters reported.
The aviation-tracking site Flightradar24 said the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, a wide-body, twin-engined plane that is one of the most modern passe
nger aircraft in service.
Tata Group, which owns Air India, has said it would give one crore rupee - the equivalent of about £86,000 - to the families of each person who was killed in the crash.Prime Minister Modi wrote 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."Both Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said they are being kept updated as the situation develops, while King Charles expressed his "deepest sympathies" to all those affected by the crash.Starmer confirmed that a UK team had been dispatched to Gujarat to join the investigation as he urged families and friends of anyone affected to contact the Foreign Office.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hails from the state of Gujarat where the crash occurred, said he was “stunned and saddened” by the disaster.
“It is heartbreaking beyond words,” Modi posted on X. “In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”
Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said he was “shocked and devastated” by the crash and his “thoughts and prayers are with all those on board and their families”.
“Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site,” he wrote on X.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement that the scenes at the crash site were “devastating”.
The United Kingdom was working with Indian authorities to urgently establish the facts around the crash and to support those affected, the Foreign Office in London said in a statement.
The UK government’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said it would send a “multidisciplinary investigation team” to support the Indian-led inquiry into the causes of the crash.
According to the Aviation Safety Network database, this was the first recorded crash of a Boeing 787 aircraft.Alex Macheras, an aviation analyst, told Al Jazeera that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner has a good safety record.“The 787 has been in service for 15 years. This is a mid- to long-haul passenger aircraft, one of the latest from Boeing in terms of the development and the introduction of carbon-fibre aircraft,” he said.“In fact, in its 15 years of commercial service globally, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has never been involved in a crash or a hull loss or a fatal accident.”The last fatal plane crash in India was in 2020 and involved an aircraft from Air India Express, the carrier’s low-cost arm. Twenty-one people were killed when the aircraft overshot a runway at Kozhikode international airport in southern India.
Posted on 2025/06/13 09:07 AM