More than 240 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London crashed moments after taking off from the city of Ahmedabad on Thursday (June 12) in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, with 242 people on board, which was headed for Gatwick Airport, burst into flames shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, crashing into BJ Medical College Civil Hospital situated in a densely packed residential neighborhood.
CCTV footage showed the plane taking off over a residential area and then disappearing from the screen before a huge fireball could be seen rising into the sky from beyond the houses.
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad Airport, the aircraft departed at 1:39 p.m. (0809 GMT). It made a Mayday call, signaling an emergency, but thereafter there was no response from the aircraft.
Authorities have confirmed that only one of the 242 people aboard the London-bound flight survived. DNA testing is now underway to identify the victims.
The passengers included 217 adults, 11 children and two infants, a source told Reuters. Air India said 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian.
The sole survivor is a British national of Indian origin, who was seated next to an emergency exit. The survivor told Indian media how he had heard a loud noise shortly after Flight AI171 took off.
"Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed," 40-year-old Ramesh Viswashkumar told the Hindustan Times, which showed a boarding pass for seat 11A in that name online.
"It all happened so quickly," he told the paper from his hospital bed.
Among those feared killed are Jamie Meek and his husband Fiongal Greenlaw‑Meek, the well-known British couple, known within the UK’s spiritual and LGBTQ+ communities.
A family of three who lived in Gloucester was also on board the flight. Another couple from west London was onboard with their two young children.
A consultant radiologist from Derby, his wife and three young children have also been named among the victims.
Vijay Rupani, former chief minister of India's Gujarat state, was killed in the crash, the country's civil aviation minister told reporters. Rupani served as the chief minister of the western Indian state from 2016-21.
A tail of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane that crashed is seen stuck on a building after the incident in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave
Since the plane crashed into a mess of a medical college student's hostel during lunch time, the casualties are expected to be much more.
Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer, told Reuters, "We are still verifying the number of dead, including those killed in the building where the plane crashed,"
She said the death toll was more than 240, revising down a previous toll of 294 as it included body parts that had been double counted. It was not immediately clear how many of the dead had been on the aircraft or on the ground.
Ahmedabad police chief G.S. Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground.
It was the first crash for the Dreamliner, a wide-body airliner that began flying commercially in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. The plane that crashed on Thursday flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said.
U.S. aerospace safety consultant Anthony Brickhouse said one problematic sign from videos of the aircraft was that the landing gear was down at a phase of flight when it would typically be up.
"If you didn't know what was happening, you would think that plane was on approach to a runway," Brickhouse said.
Indian Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said that a formal investigation has been initiated by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
Britain was also working with Indian authorities to establish the facts around the crash and to provide support to those involved, the country's foreign office said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said images of the crash were "devastating". A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said King Charles was also being kept updated.
