A large passenger plane crashed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon, shortly after its departure for London Gatwick Airport, according to multiple officials and Air India, which operated the flight.
“Air India confirms that flight AI171, from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, was involved in an accident today after take-off,” the airline said in a statement posted to social media.
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, left Ahmedabad at 1:38 p.m. local time with 242 passengers and crew on board. The plane went down minutes later in a residential area, hitting buildings, including the dining area of a medical college, officials said.
Although law enforcement initially told reporters that no one on the plane was believed to be alive, two officials later said that one person survived. Casualties were also reported on the ground.
Here’s what we know so far.
Air India plane crashes in Ahmedabad
The director general of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, told The Associated Press that flight AI171 crashed five minutes after its departure from Ahmedabad airport, while the live tracking site Flight Radar reported receiving a final signal from the aircraft only seconds after it took off.
Data collected by Flight Radar showed the jet briefly reaching a maximum barometric altitude of 625 feet before beginning to descend at a vertical speed of -475 feet per minute — a steep dive from the 896 feet per minute measured before.
Video shared online and verified by CBS News showed the jet low over buildings near the airport, descending toward the ground and disappearing from view. An enormous ball of fire and smoke erupted seconds later.
What caused the Air India crash?
The cause of Thursday’s crash was not immediately clear. India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is leading the investigation.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board confirmed it will lead a U.S. team currently heading to India to assist the local authorities. U.S. Federal Aviation Administration officials also said they are prepared to support the undertaking alongside NTSB.
“When an international incident occurs, that government leads the investigation,” the FAA said in a statement. “In the event assistance is requested, the NTSB is the official U.S. representative and the FAA provides technical support. We stand ready to launch a team immediately in coordination with the NTSB.”
Air India and Boeing said they are prepared to cooperate and support the investigation.
In videos of the crash, the plane appeared to have its landing gear down and flaps up at a time in the flight when those should have been reversed, former NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt told CBS News.
Aviation consultant John M. Cox told the AP the aircraft had its nose up and was not climbing, which investigators are expected to look at.
“At this point, it’s very, very, very early, we don’t know a whole lot,” he said. “But 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.”
The black boxes, which consist of the flight data recorder and voice recorder, had not been recovered yet.
Multiple Indian government leaders have reacted to the news of the crash, including Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, India’s civil aviation minister, who said he was “shocked and devastated.”
“We are on highest alert,” Kinjarapu wrote in a social media post. “I am personally monitoring the situation and have directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “the tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us” and called it “heartbreaking beyond words.”
Map shows where Air India plane crashed
Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images
Ahmedabad is located in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The Air India crash happened near the city’s airport, where the plane had departed.
Victims of the Air India crash
The plane was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national when it took off for London, according to Air India.
In a statement, the deputy spokesperson for the Indian Secretary-General said the crash “claimed the lives of more than 200 people aboard,” in addition to more inside a medical college building that was struck by the airliner.
Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G.S. Malik initially told The Associated Press there were no known survivors from the crash. But later, he was quoted by India’s national news agency ANI as saying there was one survivor found on the plane. A health department official also said there was one survivor, the AFP news agency reported.
Indian media outlets identified a man in a local hospital who said he was the surviving passenger, U.K. citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh. He had been listed at seat 11A on the flight manifest shared by Indian authorities. Malik was quoted by ANI saying responders had found a single survivor in seat 11A.
At least five medical students died when part of the plane hit the dining area of B.J. Medical College, Divyansh Singh, the vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Association told the Associated Press. Singh said almost 50 people who were in the building are injured — some critically.
“We are in close contact with our peers in the hospital who are on a lookout for more people feared buried in the debris,” he told AP.
The Indian Army was assisting civil authorities in combing through the debris and helping to treat the injured, the AP reported.
London Gatwick Airport said it was working with Air India to establish hotlines for relatives of flight AI171’s passengers.
“London Gatwick is liaising closely with Air India and a reception centre for relatives of those on board is being set up where information and support will be provided,” airport officials said in a statement. “British nationals who require consular assistance or have concerns about friends or family should call 020 7008 5000. Air India have set up a dedicated passenger hotline number 1800 5691 444 to provide more information.”
Spotlight on Boeing
The Air India crash appeared to be the first of its kind for the Boeing Dreamliner, according to the company’s statistical summary of commercial jet accidents between 1954 and 2024. The aircraft manufacturer has also described this model as the aviation industry’s “best-selling passenger widebody of all time,” although it has been involved in previous investigations despite no crashes on record.
“We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected,” a spokesperson for Boeing said in a statement to CBS News several hours after the incident.
On Wall Street, shares of Boeing fell $15.34, or 7.2%, to $198.66 in pre-market trading.