A London-bound Air India flight crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad on Thursday, killing at least 204 people, in what is being described as one of India’s worst aviation disasters in recent years.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, operating as Flight AI171, was carrying 242 passengers and crew when it went down in a residential area of Meghani Nagar, western India.
Authorities say the aircraft lost radar contact less than a minute after departure from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 1:39 pm local time. Moments later, it issued a mayday call before crashing into a doctors’ hostel. Ahmedabad’s police chief confirmed 204 bodies have been recovered, with 41 others injured. It remains unclear how many of the victims were on the plane versus on the ground.
Among the passengers were 53 Britons, 169 Indian nationals, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian.
Survivor walks to ambulance
A British man, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, miraculously survived and is receiving treatment in hospital. His brother, also on board, remains unaccounted for. Witnesses reported seeing black smoke and hearing a massive explosion as the plane hit the ground. Ramesh is reported to have been sitting in seat 11A, next to the emergency exit.
Miracle amidst tragedy!!!
Ramesh Vishwashkumar, seated on 11A, is the sole survivor of the Air India crash in Ahmedabad. He jumped out and walked away injured. He’s currently undergoing treatment at the hospital.#AhmedabadPlaneCrash #Ahmedabad pic.twitter.com/pWIHUD7kG5
— Shivangi Thakur (@thakur_shivangi) June 12, 2025
The crash destroyed part of the residential building housing doctors and medical students, forcing some inside to jump from windows to survive. Video footage showed the aircraft descending unnaturally before erupting in flames. Experts have suggested possible mechanical issues or a flap misconfiguration may have played a role, but investigations are ongoing.
Air India, now owned by Tata Group, has pledged compensation of 1 crore rupees (around £86,000) to the families of each victim. Operations at Ahmedabad airport have been suspended, and an emergency hotline has been set up for relatives. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and aviation authorities have ordered urgent rescue and investigation efforts.
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New Footage: Air India Flight AI171, a Boeing 787 with 242 aboard, crashed seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad, bursting into flames. #planecrashOne survivor(British National), Ramesh Vishwashkumar (seat 11A), escaped.
Helplines: 6357373831, 6357373841. Plane crash rescue… pic.twitter.com/aZ4zpRtcca
— GeoTechWar (@geotechwar) June 12, 2025
Same flight management software & ‘fly-by-wire’ systems as found on the problematic Boeing 737-800???
Sounds like perhaps a checklist item (the flaps) were missed?
Or-
A problem with one of the primary flight controls & their PCU’s?
A horizontal stabiliser trim system moving uncommanded?
I’ll take pushrods, bellcranks cables & pulleys any day over multi-computerised systems.
The integrated Garmin GPS is OK, especially for navigation, but that’s as far as I would go in the glass cockpit scenario…
Too many redundant computers that continue to cross-reference the problem without solving the problem is what we saw on the Qantas A-380 coming out of Singapore when an engine exploded.
In the end, the First Officer discovered that the computers were actually hindering the problem, so he just unplugged his laptop from the system & helped the Captain return to Singapore.
Too many of these ‘Flight Management Systems’ that are easily overlooked, or make corrections based on flight profiles that are programmed which do NOT fit the reality of the flight regimes.
Flight Engineers need to be returned to the cockpits, as they can deal with the REALITY of the flight regimes and aircraft configurations, can make in-flight repairs, & most Flight Engineer positions are manned by Pilots anyway!
& that goes for the C-130J as well! Better to have two Pilots & a Warrant Officer Flight Engineer who is qualified as a CAA-certified Pilot in hostile airspace as opposed to just two…
New is not necessarily better, & this contrast is provided by the Basler BT-67, which is a remanufactured DC-3.
https://www.baslerturbo.com/
Condolences to those who lost their relatives & friends in India
He jumped out?! Yet another example of someone saving their own life by not following “the rules”.
Fight club had it right, the oxygen masks are to pump you full of O2 and make you docile so you calmly accept your fate.
Double engine bird strike… apparently.