One survivor reported after Air India Dreamliner crashes in Ahmedabad with 242 people on board

A state-owned Air India plane with 242 people on board (230 passengers and 12 crew) crashed minutes after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport in western India on Thursday. Flight AI171, heading to London’s Gatwick Airport, crashed into a densely populated area in ​​the residential neighborhood of Meghani Nagar shortly after starting its climb. One British passenger survived, according to local police, as reported by the Indian news agency ANI and the BBC.

Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G.S. Malik told the AP that residents of the neighborhood are likely among the victims. “We are trying to confirm the exact death toll,” he said. Reuters reported, citing rescue teams and local police, that the plane crashed into a doctors’ hostel and that at least 204 bodies, most of them charred, have been recovered from that building. Malik said the bodies could include both passengers and members of the public who were present at the crash site. Indian Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda had also previously confirmed that “many people” had died in the accident, but without providing further details.

The Foreign Ministry has appealed for patience. “Rescue operations are underway. We need a little more time to be able to release specific details,” a spokesperson said. “We have lost many people. We extend our sincere condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones.”

“Flight AI171, operating the Ahmedabad-London Gatwick route, suffered an incident after takeoff,” the airline said in a brief statement posted on the social media platform X. “We are gathering information and will provide updates as soon as possible,” it added.

The aircraft, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, took off at 1:38 p.m. local time (11:08 a.m. GMT). On board were 217 adults, 11 children, and two infants: 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian national. The injured are being transported to nearby hospitals, and the airline has set up a dedicated hotline for families and loved ones.

According to air traffic control, the pilot issued a mayday call just seconds after takeoff from runway 23. Shortly after, when the plane had reached an altitude of approximately 190 meters, contact with the aircraft was lost. The air traffic analysis and monitoring website FlightRadar24 reported that the last trace of the plane was recorded a few seconds after takeoff.

An airport spokesperson told news agencies that the airfield is currently closed and that all flights have been temporarily suspended. Bhupendra Patel, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, stated on social media that he had ordered authorities “to undertake immediate rescue and relief operations in response to the accident and to arrange for immediate treatment of the injured passengers.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his dismay over the accident via X. “The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words,” he wrote. Modi added that he is in contact with ministers and authorities to coordinate assistance for those affected.

For its part, the British government has stated that “the United Kingdom is working with local authorities in India to urgently establish the facts and provide support to those involved.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the scenes as “devastating” in a social media post.

Images released by local media show the remains of the fuselage engulfed in flames and a thick column of black smoke rising near the airport. Dozens of people have been evacuated on stretchers and in ambulances, while emergency crews worked through the wreckage searching for survivors. The Director General of Civil Aviation, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, confirmed that all emergency protocols have been activated.

Aviation experts quoted by the BBC agree that the position of the plane’s flaps during takeoff could have been a determining factor. “The undercarriage is normally retracted within 10-15 seconds, and the flaps are then retracted over a period of 10-15 minutes,” aeronautical analyst Geoffrey Thomas explained to the British broadcaster. He specified that, however, in the videos, it appears that the tires were still activated, but the flaps were not. Former pilot Marco Chan, for his part, noted that “would point to potential human error if flaps aren’t set correctly.” However, he insisted that the video resolution is too low to confirm this with certainty.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, in service since 2011, is one of the American manufacturer’s most advanced long-haul models. Although its safety record is solid, Boeing has been in the spotlight of regulatory authorities in recent years due to manufacturing defects and delivery delays. Air India was the first airline in the country to operate this model, which has become a key part of its international fleet. This accident once again puts the technical reliability of the aircraft and maintenance protocols in commercial aviation under scrutiny.

This is the first major accident involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, according to the statistical summary of commercial aviation accidents published by the manufacturer. There are currently more than 1,175 units in operation worldwide, operating around 2,100 flights daily. Analyst Thomas told CNN that, after reviewing images of the aircraft descending before impact, “it did not appear to be in an emergency situation [...] It just sank and hit the ground in a ball of fire.”

In 2020, a plane crash involving Air India Express — the airline’s low-cost subsidiary — left 21 people dead and 127 injured when a plane from Dubai skidded off the runway and broke into two in the city of Calicut, southwest India. In 2010, another Air India plane, traveling to the same destination, crashed in Mangalore, also in southwest India, with 166 passengers on board. Only eight people survived.

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