Fiery Air India crash kills 241 people aboard, leaving 1 survivor,
airline says
[June 13, 2025]
By AJIT SOLANKI and RAJESH ROY
AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — An Air India plane bound for London crashed in a
residential area of Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff Thursday, killing
241 people on board, the airline said. One passenger who was thrown from
the plane survived.
At least five medical students in a college hostel were killed when the
plane hit the building and burst into flames, according to a medical
association officer.
“Most of the bodies have been charred beyond recognition,” said Vidhi
Chaudhary, a top state police officer in the city in northwestern India.
Indian Home Minister Amit Shah confirmed that he met the sole survivor
at the hospital. A doctor said he had examined the survivor, whom he
identified as Vishwashkumar Ramesh.
“He was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body,” Dr.
Dhaval Gameti told The Associated Press. “But he seems to be out of
danger.”
Another medic said Ramesh told him that immediately after the plane took
off, it began descending and suddenly split in two, throwing him out
before a loud explosion.
Black smoke billowed from the site where the plane crashed near the
airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than 5 million and the capital of
Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state.
Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have
been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, and adjacent
multistory buildings with water. Charred bodies lay on the ground and
parts of the fuselage were scattered around the site. Indian army teams
were assisting civil authorities to clear debris and help treat the
injured.
A video on social media showed the jet slowly descending as if it were
landing. As soon as it disappeared from view behind rows of houses, a
giant fireball filled the sky. The AP was able to verify the video by
matching up the flight path of the plane from the runway with the crash
site and the nearby residential area.
At the crash site, the tail cone of the aircraft with damaged stabilizer
fins still attached was lodged near the top of one of the buildings.
Others may be buried in debris
In a social media post, Modi called the crash “heartbreaking beyond
words" and said “my thoughts are with everyone affected.”
Sambit Patra, a lawmaker from Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said
Gujarat’s former chief minister, Vijay Rupani, was among the dead.
Divyansh Singh, vice president of the Federation of All India Medical
Association, said at least five students from the medical college were
killed on the ground and 50 others were injured. Singh said some of them
were in critical condition and many people are “feared buried in the
debris.”
Air India confirmed in a statement posted on X that 229 passengers and
12 crew members were killed in the crash. The only survivor was a
British national of Indian origin. The flight bound for London Gatwick
Airport had 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian
passenger aboard.
“Our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of all those
affected, their families and loved ones,” the airline said.
The first crash of a Boeing 787
This is the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, according to the
Aviation Safety Network database. Boeing said it was “working to gather
more information.”
India’s aviation regulatory body said the aircraft gave a mayday call,
signaling an emergency, but then did not respond to the calls made by
the airport traffic control.
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Firefighters work at the site of an airplane that crashed in India's
northwestern city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, Thursday, June 12,
2025. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
Aviation consultant John M. Cox, the CEO of Safety Operating
Systems, told the AP from Los Angeles that while the first images of
the crash were poor, it appeared the aircraft had its nose up and
was not climbing, which is one of the things that investigators
would look at.
“The 787 has very extensive flight data monitoring — the parameters
on the flight data recorder are in the thousands — so once we get
that recorder, they’ll be able to know pretty quickly what
happened,” he said.
The wide-body, twin-engine aircraft was introduced in 2009, and more
than 1,000 have been delivered to dozens of airlines, according to
the flightradar24 website.
UK promises support
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government was in
constant contact with Indian authorities and encouraged loved ones
of passengers on the Air India flight to contact the foreign office.
“Our hearts and our thoughts are absolutely with the friends and
families of all those affected who are going to be absolutely
devastated by this awful news,” Starmer said.
British Cabinet minister Lucy Powell said the government will
provide “all the support that it can” to those affected by the
crash.
Britain has very close ties with India. There were nearly 1.9
million people in the country of Indian descent, according to the
2021 U.K. census.
Condolences also poured in from King Charles III, who said he and
his wife, Queen Camilla, were “desperately shocked” by the crash.
“Our special prayers and deepest possible sympathy are with the
families and friends of all those affected by this appallingly
tragic incident across so many nations,” he said in a statement.
Previous air disasters in India
The last major passenger plane crash in India was in 2020, when an
Air India Express Boeing-737 skidded off a hilltop runway in
southern India, killing 21 people.
The worst air disaster in India was on Nov. 12, 1996, when a Saudi
Arabian Airlines flight collided midair with a Kazakhstan Airlines
Flight near Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 on board
the two planes.
Boeing has been in recovery mode for more than six years after Lion
Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 Max 8, plunged into the Java Sea off
the coast of Indonesia minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing
all 189 people on board. Five months later, Ethiopian Airlines
Flight 302, a Boeing 737 Max 8, crashed after takeoff from Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 157 passengers and crew members.
Shares of Boeing Co. tumbled nearly 9% before trading opened in the
U.S.
___
Roy reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain
and Sheikh Saaliq in Srinagar, India; Pan Pylas, Kelvin Chan and
Brian Melley in London; and Annika Wolters, David Rising, Adam
Schreck and Lorian Belanger in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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