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Ahmedabad, India (AP) — An Air India passenger plane tied to London crashed over 240 people in a city in Ahmedabad, India’s northwestern city on Thursday, the airline said.
The visuals of local television channels showed smoke swirling from the scene of the clash that appears to be a densely populated area of Ahmedabad, the city with a population of over 5 million and the nation’s capital of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Firefighters absorbed the plane’s smoking wreckage. The plane was fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, with adjacent multi-story buildings equipped with water. His burnt body lies on the ground.
“The scene where London-bound planes appear carrying many British citizens crashing in the city of Ahmedabad, India, is devastating,” British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer said in a statement.
Firefighters work on the site of a crashed plane in Ahmedabad, northwest India, Gujarat on Thursday, June 12th, 2025 (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
Modi called Crash “more than words and heartbreaking.”
“In this sad time, my thoughts are influenced by everyone,” he said in a social media post.
The airline said the flight bound to the Gatwick airport is carrying 242 passengers and crew. Of these, Air India said there were 169 Indians, 53 British people, seven Portuguese people and one Canadian.
Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, director of the Civil Aviation Authority, told The Associated Press that Air India Flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8, collided with a residential area called Meganinagar five minutes after taking off at 1:38pm local time. He said that there were 244 people on board and it was not immediately possible to harmonize the contradiction with the number of Air India.
Every effort was made to ensure medical assistance and relief assistance on the site, posted on X by Indian Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarap.
The 787 Dreamliner is a wide body twin engine plane. According to the Air Safety Network Database, this is the first crash of the Boeing 787.
Boeing said it was aware of reports of the crash and was “working to gather more information.”
The aircraft was introduced in 2009, and more than 1,000 people were delivered to dozens of airlines, according to the Flightradar24 website.
At this point, Natara Janchandra Sekaran, chairman of Air India, said, “Our main focus is to support all the affected people and their families.”
He said at X that the airline has established an emergency center and a support team for families seeking information about people on flights.
“Our idea and the deepest pathos of dol is with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event,” he said.
British minister Lucy Powell said the government will provide “everything possible” to those affected by the crash.
“This is a story that unfolds and will undoubtedly raise a great deal of concern and concern for many of the families and communities here, as well as those awaiting the arrival of their loved ones,” she told lawmakers in the House.
“We send the deepest sympathy and thoughts to all these families. The government will provide all the support with India and the people of this country,” she added.
The UK has very close ties with India. According to the 2021 British Census, there were around 1.9 million people in Indian countries.
India’s last major passenger plane crash was in 2020. A Air India Express Boeing 737 slipped off the runway on a hilltop in southern India, killing 21 people.
India’s worst air disaster occurred on November 12, 1996, when a Saudi Airlines flight collided into the air on a flight of Kazakhastan Airlines near Charki Dadri in Haryana, killing all 349 people on two planes.
The crash comes just days before the opening of the Paris Air Show, a major aviation exposition where Boeing and European rival Airbus will showcase the battle for jet orders from airline customers.
Boeing took recovery mode over six years later, six years after the Lion Air Flight 610, Boeing 737 Max 8, and after leaping into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, he acquired recovery mode and killed all 189 people. Five months later, the Ethiopian Airlines 302 Flight 302 killed 157 passengers and crew after taking off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, up to eight on the Boeing 737.
Boeing’s shares fell nearly 9% before it opened in the US
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Roy reported from New Delhi. Sheikh Sarik of Srinagar, Pan Pira, Kelvin Chan, London’s Brian Merley, Anica Walters, David Rising, Adam Shrek and Lorian Beranger contributed to the report.
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