An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner carrying 242 people crashed five minutes after taking off from India’s Ahmedabad airport.
Ahmedabad Police Commissioner GS Malik confirmed that authorities found one survivor – Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British national, who was in India for a few days to visit his family and was returning to the UK along with his brother, Ajay Kumar Ramesh.
Vishwash, who shared a picture of his boarding pass with reporters – said: “Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise…it all happened so quickly”
The flight was on its way to London and passengers included 217 adults, 11 children and two infants, a source told Reuters. Out of the passengers, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian, Air India said. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner twin jet also had 12 crew members, with Pilot in Command Sumit Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kunder.
Air India Crash – Passengers’ List
“The building on which it has crashed is a doctors’ hostel… we have cleared almost 70% to 80% of the area and will clear the rest soon,” a senior police officer told reporters.
A video of the aircraft flying low and struggling to gain altitude shows the plane slamming the ground and exploding in a massive ball of fire at 1.38 pm. It was loaded with fuel since it was flying long distance to London.
According to the Police Control room: “On 12th Jun, 2025, M/s Air India B787 Aircraft VT-ANB, while operating flight AI-171 from Ahmedabad to Gatwick, has crashed immediately after takeoff from Ahmedabad.
Capt Sumit Sabharwal is an LTC with 8,200 hours of experience. The copilot had 1,100 hours of flying experience. As per ATC, the aircraft departed from Ahmadabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23.
In the final moments, the catastrophic failure to achieve lift happened at a very low altitude of 825 feet. The aircraft was clearly unable to climb, aviation expert Sanjay Lazar told NDTV.
It gave a ‘MAYDAY’ Call to ATC, but thereafter, no response was given by the aircraft to the calls made by ATC.
Air India said in a statement said flight No. AI 171, operating Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, was involved in an incident today. “At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates at the earliest”.
The operations at Ahmedabad airport were temporarily suspended after the plane crash.
Operational Control Room, Ministry of Civil Aviation: 011-24610843 | 9650391859
(With inputs from Reuters; Picture Courtesy: Reuters, AP)
