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The Air India plane heading for London crashed in a residential area in Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff on Thursday, killing 241 people on board, the airline said. One passenger who was thrown from the plane survived.
Vidi Chaudhary, a top state police officer in the northwest city, killed an unknown number of people on the ground, including medical students at a university hostel, crashed when the plane crashed into the building.
“Most of the bodies are not recognized,” she said.
India’s Home Minister Amit Shah confirmed that he had met the only survivor at the hospital. The doctor said he had looked into the survivors he identified as Vishwashkumar Ramesh.
“He was confused by multiple injuries throughout his body,” Dr. Dabal Gamety told The Associated Press. “But it seems he’s out of danger.”
According to another Medic, Ramesh told him that he began to descend shortly after the plane took off, suddenly split into two, and abandoned him before it exploded loudly.
Black smoke swirled in huge waves from where the plane crashed and exploded into flames near Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat, the city of more than 5 million people.
Firefighters absorbed the plane’s smoking wreckage. The plane was fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, with adjacent multistory buildings equipped with water. The burnt body lay on the ground, with parts of its torso scattered around the site. Indian Army teams were helping civil authorities clean up the debris and helping to treat the injured.
Social media videos showed the jet slowly descending as if it had landed. As soon as it disappeared from view behind the line of the house, a giant fireball filled the sky. The AP was able to verify the video by matching the flight path from the runway to the plane with the collision site and the nearby residential area.
At the crash site, the aircraft’s tailcon, which was still fitted with damaged stabilizer fins, remained near the top of one of the building.
Getty Images
The back of the Air India Flight 171 is depicted on the site after crashing in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025 (by Sam Panthaky/AFP via Getty Images)
In a social media post, Modi called Crash “a heartbreaking word” and said “everyone has been influenced by my thoughts.”
Sambit Patra, a MP for Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat, was among the dead.
Diviansh Singh, vice president of the All India Medical Association Federation, said at least five students from the medical college were killed on the ground and 50 others were injured. Singh said some of them were in danger and many people were “feeling buried in debris.”
Air India confirmed in a statement posted to X that 229 passengers and 12 crew members were killed in the crash. The only survivor was of British Indian origin. The boundary to London Gatwick Airport was 169 Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian).
“Our efforts are fully focused on the needs of all the people affected, their families and loved ones,” the airline said.
The first crash of the Boeing 787
According to the Air Safety Network Database, this is the first crash of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Boeing said it was “working to gather more information.”
India’s aviation regulator said the aircraft gave a Mayday call, signaling an emergency but did not respond to the airport’s traffic control call.
Aviation consultant John M. Cox, CEO of the Safety Operating System, told the AP in Los Angeles that the first image of the collision was poor, but the aircraft looked like it had raised its nose and hadn’t climbed.
An infographic showing how the crash unfolds. (Photo of Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The 787 has a very extensive flight data monitoring. The parameters of the flight data recorder are in thousands, so once you get that recorder, you can know pretty quickly what happened,” he said.
According to the Flightradar24 website, the wide-body twin-engine aircraft was introduced in 2009, delivering over 1,000 people to dozens of airlines.
The UK promises support
British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer said his government has been in constant contact with Indian authorities and has encouraged loved ones of passengers on flights at Air India to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Our mind and our thoughts are absolutely with the friends and family of all the people affected who are absolutely shattered by this terrible news,” Starmer said.
British minister Lucy Powell said the government will provide “everything possible” to those affected by the crash.
The UK has very close ties with India. According to the 2021 British Census, there were around 1.9 million people in Indian countries.
The meaning of sadness was also poured into King Charles III. Charles III said he and his wife, Queen Camilla, were “deeply shocked” by the crash.
“Our special prayers and deepest sympathy lie in the family and friends of all those affected by this terrifyingly tragic incident in so many countries,” he said in a statement.
Previous Air Damage in India
India’s last major passenger plane crash was in 2020. A Air India Express Boeing 737 slipped off the runway on a hilltop in South 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 Kazakhstan Airlines flight near Sharkidadri in Haryana, killing all 349 people on two planes.
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
Roy reported from New Delhi. Associated Press authors Aijaz Hussain and Sheikh Saaliq are Sheikh Saaliq of Srinagar, India. London’s Panpira, Kelvinchan, and Brian Merley. And Bangkok’s Anica Walters, David Rising, Adam Shrek and Lorian Beranger contributed to the report.
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