Published: 08:45 AM, 13 June 2025
Over 200 killed in Air India jet crash
An Air India aircraft bound for London carrying 242 passengers crashed shortly after take-off in western India on Thursday.
Video clips showed a huge plume of black smoke billowing into the sky. Rescue workers scrambled to put out the fire and search for potential survivors.
The flight, A1171, took off at 1:39 p.m. local time (4:09 a.m. ET) from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in India's western state of Gujarat, according to a statement from India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation. It was headed to London Gatwick, and scheduled to land at 6:25 p.m. local time (1:25 p.m. ET).
However, right after taking off, the aircraft sent out a Mayday call to air traffic control (ATC), the Indian civil aviation authorities have informed.
"Thereafter no response was given by the aircraft to the calls made by ATC. Aircraft immediately after departure from Runway 23, fell on ground outside the airport perimeter," the statement from Indian ATC mentioned.
The plane had reached an altitude of 625 feet when its signal was lost, according to data from flight tracker FlightRadar24.
Videos clips showed the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner descending, before disappearing behind buildings and bursting into a fireball. Gujarat is also the home state of Indian Premier Narendra Modi. Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of the Gujarat state from 2001 to 2014.
The aircraft hit a dormitory for physicians when it crashed, with images showing the tail of the plane protruding from the building. In the debris-strewn street below, rescue workers rushed to the spot to extinguish the flames and search among the charred wreckage for survivors.
The crash is the first remarkable mishap involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner since the aircraft first came into service in 2011, according to the aircraft manufacturer.
Boeing officials told reporters that they are working to procure more information about the occurrence. Air India said there were 169 Indian nationals on the flight, in addition to 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.
The United Kingdom and India have strong cultural ties and a complicated history dating back to Britain's colonial era. There is a large Indian diaspora in the UK of about 1.9 million people - or 3.1% of the population - according to the latest census data in 2021.
The Ahmedabad city Police Commissioner told the Associated Press (AP) that there appears to be no survivors from the crash.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the crash was "heartbreaking beyond words" and that he was in touch with the authorities involved in the disaster. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes were "devastating."
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Air India, said the carrier was "doing everything in our power to assist the emergency response teams at the site and to provide all necessary support and care to those impacted." If the death toll is confirmed the crash is the deadliest worldwide since 2014 when a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
Air India was bought by Indian multinational conglomerate Tata Group in 2022, and was widely regarded as a historic homecoming. Originally founded by J.R.D. Tata in 1932 before being nationalized in 1953, the deal marked the return of Air India to its original owners after nearly 70 years of government control.
>>Chanchal Chakraborty with agency inputs
