"Insights into the Fatal Crash of Air India Flight 171"

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An Air India flight carrying 242 people crashed on Thursday, with only one confirmed survivor.
The flight issued a mayday call immediately after takeoff.
An investigation has been launched into the fatal crash, believed to be the first for a Dreamliner.

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner carrying 242 people crashed on Thursday after taking off from the Indian city of Ahmedabad bound for London, with officials saying just one person on the jet survived and at least 24 people on the ground died.

Police said 265 bodies had been taken to hospital in the main city of India’s western state of Gujarat.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “stunned and saddened” by the crash.

“It is heartbreaking beyond words,” he said in a statement on X, adding he had been in touch with officials assisting those affected.

Here is what we know so far about what is believed to be the first deadly accident for Boeing’s Dreamliner.

A map showing where a plane crashed shortly after taking off. An inset shows the city of Ahmedabad in India's west.

The plane smashed into a building housing doctors and their families in a crowded residential area of Ahmedabad, a city home to about eight million people. Source: SBS News

What happened to the India Air flight that crashed?

The Boeing 787-8 jet heading for London’s Gatwick Airport left Ahmedabad with 242 people on board, including two pilots and 10 cabin crew.

Air India flight 171 issued a mayday call and crashed “immediately after takeoff”, around 1.40 pm local time, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

Videos posted on social media, which Agence France-Presse (AFP) was not able to immediately verify, showed the jet losing altitude — with its nose up — before it hit a medical staff hostel and exploded into a ball of fire.

Air India said the passengers included 169 Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese nationals and a Canadian.

Security guards stand outside a hospital building labelled 'post mortem room'

Indian security personnel stand near the post mortem room of a civil hospital where the victims’ dead body were taken for further investigation after the crash near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. Source: AAP / Rajat Gupta/EPA

Where did the Air India flight crash?

The plane smashed into a building housing doctors and their families in a crowded residential area of Ahmedabad, a city home to about eight million people.

At the site of the crash between a hospital and the Ghoda Camp neighbourhood, an AFP journalist saw people recovering bodies and firefighters spraying water on the smouldering wreckage.

A resident, who declined to be named, said: “We saw people from the building jumping from the second and third floor to save themselves. The plane was in flames.”

“When we reached the spot there were several bodies lying around and firefighters were dousing the flames,” another resident, Poonam Patni, told AFP, adding that many of the bodies were burned.

A building burnt out by the fireball that followed the plane crash. Source: AAP / Siddharaj Solanki/EPA

A doctor named Krishna said that “the nose and front wheel landed on the canteen building where students were having lunch”.

He said he saw “about 15 to 20 burned bodies”, while he and his colleagues rescued around 15 students.

Who was the sole survivor of the crash?

He was quoted by Indian media as saying: “Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.”

Doctors told local media that he did not sustain any major injuries.

“The side of the plane I was in landed on the ground, and I could see that there was space outside the aircraft, so when my door broke I tried to escape through it and I did,” Viswashkumar said.

“The opposite side of the aircraft was blocked by the building wall so nobody could have come out of there.”

Viswashkumar said he walked out of the crash site with only burn injuries on his left arm.

Police said 265 bodies had been recovered from the site.

Ahmadabad airport closed with all flights suspended until further notice.

Air India chair Natarajan Chandrasekaran said an emergency centre had been activated and a support team set up for families seeking information.

Tata Group, owners of Air India, offered financial aid of 10 million rupees ($179,000) to the families of each victim and promised to cover the medical expenses of the injured.

A man holding a torch walks through building and plane wreckage

Air India flight AI171 was bound for London carrying 242 passengers and crew members on board a Boeing 787-8 aircraft and crashed minutes after take-off in the Meghaninagar area of Ahmedabad. Source: AAP / Rajat Gupta/EPA

An investigation has begun

India’s aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said a formal investigation had been started and US plane maker Boeing said it was “working to gather more information” on the incident to help Air India.

The British and US accident investigation agencies said they had sent teams to support the Indian inquiry.

A source close to the case said this was the first time a 787 Dreamliner had crashed.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is the pride of the US company’s catalogue for long-distance planes: a fuel-efficient, wide-body, lightweight aircraft able to transport up to 330 people.

“Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected in Ahmedabad,” said Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, adding in a statement that he told Air India’s chair Boeing would support the investigation.

The plane was delivered to Air India in 2014 and had more than 41,000 hours of flying time, according to consultancy Cirium.

That makes Thursday’s tragedy different from the two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that involved planes Boeing had only recently delivered to airlines.

A central factor in both MAX crashes was the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, a flight handling system that badly malfunctioned, pointing to design flaws.

The MAX crashes plunged Boeing into a years-long slump extended by fresh safety problems early in 2024. Boeing has reported annual losses the last six years.

Since introducing the Dreamliner into service in 2011, Boeing has had to make some changes, mainly due to assembly faults and manufacturing quality issues.

The plane was also scrutinised in an April 2024 US Senate hearing that aired criticism from a whistleblower who testified that he was ostracised after reporting serious manufacturing defects on the 787 and the 777.

Additional reporting by AAP