By Sumit Khanna, Shivam Patel and Aditi Shah, Reuters and RNZ digital staff
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 (India time), authorities said, in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, with 242 people on board, was headed for Gatwick Airport, south of the British capital and crashed onto a medical college hostel during lunch hour.
One passenger, Ramesh Viswashkumar, is known to have survived, police said, and the man told Indian media how he had heard a loud noise shortly after Flight AI171 took off.
Viswashkumar had been sitting near an emergency exit of the London-bound flight and managed to jump out, police said.
The back of an Air India plane after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad. Photo: Handout / CENTRAL INDUSTRIAL SECURITY FORCE (CISF) / AFP
"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.
New Zealand-born Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson said the airline was working with emergency response teams and a hotline had been set up to handle calls from family and friends of those affected.
What happened immediately after Air India plane took off from Ahmedabad. @vishnundtv explains pic.twitter.com/BkmRxOzDwc
— NDTV (@ndtv) June 12, 2025
In a video statement posted to social media, Wilson expressed "deep sorrow" and said it was a "difficult day for all of us at Air India".
"Our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, their families and loved ones. I know that there are many questions, and at this stage, I will not be able to answer all of them."
Message from Campbell Wilson, MD & CEO, Air India. pic.twitter.com/19MiwtkwAI
— Air India (@airindia) June 12, 2025
He said the airline was working with authorities on the emergency response, and a "special team of caregivers from Air India is on their way to Ahmedabad to provide additional support".
Campbell Wilson. Photo: Air India
"Investigations will take time. But anything we can do now, we are doing."
A helpline had been set up for family and friends to use for more information, on 1-800-569-1444.
"We understand that people are eager for information. Please know that we will continue to share accurate and timely information as soon as we can.
- How the Air India plane came crashing to earth
- Sole survivor jumped out of emergency exit
- Air NZ boss speaks
- The worst air crashes in recent years
"But anything we report must be accurate and not speculative. We owe that to everyone involved.
"For now, our teams are working around the clock to support passengers, crew, and their families, as well as investigators, however we can."
'Happened so quickly'
"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.
Rescue officials carry a victim's body at the site where Air India flight 171 crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad. Photo: SAM PANTHAKY / AFP
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 had been asked to give DNA samples to identify the dead, state health secretary Dhananjay Dwivedi told reporters.
Parts of the plane's body 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.
Aviation tracking site Flightradar24 said the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, one of the most modern passenger aircraft in service.
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 Thursday flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said.
Air India confirms that flight AI171, from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, was involved in an accident today after take-off.
— Air India (@airindia) June 12, 2025
The flight, which departed from Ahmedabad at 1338 hrs, was carrying 242 passengers and crew members on board the Boeing 787-8 aircraft. Of these, 169 are…
Crash just after take-off
Thursday's crash occurred just after the plane took off. TV channels 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.
A plume of smoke rising after Air India flight 171 crashed near the airport in Ahmedabad. Photo: @ASHLOVETEA via AFP
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad Airport, the aircraft departed at 1:39 p.m. (8.09pm New Zealand time). It gave a Mayday call, signalling an emergency, but thereafter there was no response from the aircraft.
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 plane was on approach to a runway," Brickhouse said.
Boeing said it was in contact with Air India and working to gather more information. Boeing shares fell 5 percent as the crash posed a major setback for the planemaker as its new CEO looks to rebuild trust following a series of safety and production challenges.
An Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Photo: 123RF
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 US National Transportation Safety Board said it would lead a team of US investigators travelling to India to help in the investigation.
Britain was working with Indian authorities to urgently 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 emerging of the crash were "devastating". A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said King Charles was also being kept updated.
#AhmedabadPlaneCrash | Sequence of events accessed:
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) June 12, 2025
- 1:39 PM: Plane took off from Ahmedabad
- Air India plane took off from runway 23
- Moments later, issues mayday call to ATC
- No response from the pilot to calls from ATC
- Plane crashes outside airport perimeter… pic.twitter.com/ioQLNABmjx
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.
The Air India plane that crashed near Ahmedabad was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner en route to London, carrying 242 passengers. It marks the first fatal crash involving this aircraft model. https://t.co/HqzJzjw3qk pic.twitter.com/DWLiTvlhij
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) June 12, 2025
- Reuters / RNZ
