Summary

Companies Flight was bound for London’s Gatwick Airport

Police say plane crashed on doctors’ hostel

More than 240 dead, police say

Airline confirms one passenger survived

First fatal crash of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, with 242 people on board, which was headed for Gatwick Airport, south of the British capital, had only one survivor after it crashed onto a medical college hostel during lunch hour.

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The sole survivor is a British national of Indian origin and is being treated in a hospital, the airline confirmed. The man told Indian media how he had heard a loud noise shortly after Flight AI171 took off.

“We are still verifying the number of dead, including those killed in the building where the plane crashed,” Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer, told Reuters.

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.

The only known surviving passenger was in seat 11A, next to an emergency exit, Chaudhary said, adding that there could be more survivors in hospital.

“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.

“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me,” he said. “Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”

He said that his brother, Ajay, was seated in a different row on the plane. “He was travelling with me and I can’t find him anymore. Please help me find him,” he said.

Ahmedabad police chief G.S. Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground. The dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the main city.

Relatives have been asked to give DNA samples to identify the dead, state health secretary Dhananjay Dwivedi said.

Parts of the plane’s fuselage were scattered around the smouldering building into which it crashed. The tail of the plane was stuck on top of the building.

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.

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.

CRASH JUST AFTER TAKE-OFF

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.

“My sister-in-law was going to London. Within an hour, I got news that the plane had crashed,” Poonam Patel, a relative of one of the passengers, told news agency ANI at the government hospital in Ahmedabad.

Ramila, the mother of a student at the medical college, told ANI her son had gone to the hostel for his lunch break when the plane crashed. “My son is safe, and I have spoken to him. He jumped from the second floor, so he suffered some injuries,” she said.

A map showing the flight path of the aircraft from the airport and the approximate crash site based on social media images.

Item 1 of 34 A person walks past debris at the crash site after an Air India aircraft, bound for London’s Gatwick Airport, crashed during take-off from an airport in Ahmedabad, India June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY [1/34] A person walks past debris at the crash site after an Air India aircraft, bound for London’s Gatwick Airport, crashed during take-off from an airport in Ahmedabad, India June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad Airport, the aircraft departed at 1:39 p.m. (0809 GMT). It made a Mayday call, signalling an emergency, but thereafter there was no response from the aircraft.

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.

“The government is constituting a high-level committee comprising experts from multiple disciplines to examine the matter in detail,” he added.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said that he has spoken with the Air India chairman to offer full support and a team stands ready to support the investigation. The airline CEO, Campbell Wilson, said the investigation would take time and expressed “deep sorrow” about the incident.

Aircraft engine-maker GE Aerospace said that it would put a team together to go to India and analyse cockpit data, India’s CNBC TV18 reported.

The U.S. transportation secretary said the Federal Aviation Administration was working with Boeing and GE in the investigation.

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.

“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X. “It is heartbreaking beyond words.” Gujarat is Modi’s home state.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said images of the crash were “devastating”. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said King Charles was also being kept updated.

U.S. President Donald Trump called the crash “terrible”.

INDIA’S FIRST CRASH SINCE 2020

Ahmedabad Airport, which suspended all flight operations after the crash, said it was operational again but with limited flights. The airport is operated by India’s Adani Group conglomerate.

The last fatal plane crash in India , the world’s third largest aviation market and its fastest growing, was in 2020 and involved Air India Express, the airline’s low-cost arm.

The airline’s Boeing-737 overshot a “table-top” runway in southern India, skidded and plunged into a valley, crashing nose-first into the ground and killing 21 people

The formerly state-owned Air India was taken over by Indian conglomerate Tata Group in 2022, and merged with Vistara – a joint venture between the group and Singapore Airlines – in 2024.

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Reporting by Sumit Khanna and Mahezabin Saiyed in Ahmedabad, Sakshi Dayal, Tanvi Mehta, Aditi Shah, Aditya Kalra, Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Krishna Das, Shivam Patel in New Delhi, Shivani Tanna, Surbhi Misra and Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Writing by YP Rajesh; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Alex Richardson, Alison Williams and Sandra Maler

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Actor Vikrant Massey has mourned the ill-fated passing of Clive Kunder, co-pilot of the Air India plane that tragically crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon (June 12). Clive’s father, Clifford Kunder, is close to Massey’s family.

On Instagram Stories, Vikrant, known for films like 12th Fail and Sector 36, expressed his grief over the tragedy, writing, “My heart breaks for the families & loved ones of the ones who lost their lives in the unimaginably tragic air crash in Ahmedabad today.”

He mentioned that Clive Kunder, the First Officer operating on the flight, died in the tragedy.

”It pains even more to know that my uncle, Clifford Kunder lost his son, Clive Kunder who was the 1st officer operating on that fateful flight. May God give strength to you and your family uncle and to all deeply affected,” Vikrant wrote, later clarifying that Clive was not his cousin.

“The unfortunately deceased Mr. Clive Kunder was not my cousin. The Kunder’s are our family friends,” Vikrant stated.

A Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft bound from Ahmedabad to London, carrying 242 passengers and crew, crashed shortly after takeoff on Thursday (June 12, 2025) afternoon. The Air India flight was steered by Pilot in Command Sumit Sabharwal, and co-Pilot Clive Kunder. Barring one miracle survivor, no one else could be rescued.

Earlier on Thursday, several members of the Indian film fraternity took to social media to mourn the tragic crash, expressing condolences and prayers for victims and families.

Air India has confirmed there was only one survivor from today’s plane crash in Ahmedabad.

An airline spokesman said that “of the 242 aboard, there are 241 confirmed fatalities. The sole survivor is being treated in a hospital”.

It came after a senior Indian police officer said there could be more survivors being treated in hospital.

The only person to escape the crash alive was earlier confirmed to be Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British national of Indian origin.

Police said he was seated near an emergency exit and “managed to escape by jumping out the emergency door”.

“He was near the emergency exit and managed to escape by jumping out the emergency door,” said Vidhi Chaudhary, a senior police officer in Ahmedabad, speaking about Viswashkumar.

The flight to Gatwick took off at 1:39pm local time (9:09am BST) from runway 23. Of the 242 passengers on board, 53 were British.

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 Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Item 1 of 2 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

Summary

Companies Police say man was sitting by emergency exit

So far only known survivor, although police say there may be others

Family in Britain have been in touch with him

NEW DELHI, June 12 (Reuters) – Ramesh Viswashkumar, the only known survivor out of the 242 people onboard an Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday, had been sitting near an emergency exit of the London-bound flight and managed to jump out, police said.

Speaking from his hospital bed, the 40-year-old told Indian media that he was a British national and was travelling to Britain with his brother after visiting family in India.

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“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital,” Viswashkumar told the Hindustan Times.

It was not clear whether Viswashkumar managed to jump out before the plane made impact.

Social media footage shown on Indian news channels showed a man in a bloodstained white t-shirt and dark pants limping on a street and being helped by a medic. The man had bruises on his face and a goatee beard, resembling photographs of Viswashkumar in hospital after the crash that were published by local media.

Reuters could not immediately verify the video, in which people gathered around the man and asked him where were the other passengers, to which he replied “they’re all inside”.

A photo of Viswashkumar’s boarding pass shown online by the Hindustan Times showed that he was seated in seat 11A of the plane bound for Gatwick Airport.

He told the paper his brother Ajay had been seated in a different row on the plane and asked for help to find him.

“He was near the emergency exit and managed to escape by jumping out the emergency door,” said Vidhi Chaudhary, a senior police officer in Ahmedabad, speaking about Viswashkumar.

A member of Viswashkumar’s family based in Britain, who requested anonymity, told Reuters over the phone that he had survived and that the family was in touch with him, but declined to share further details.

Ajay Valgi, a cousin of Viswashkumar who lives in Leicester, central England, told the BBC that Viswashkumar spoke by phone to confirm he was all right. “He only said that he was fine, nothing else,” Valgi said.

Valgi said the family had not heard anything about his brother. “We’re not doing well. We’re all upset,” he said.

Viswashkumar is married with one child, a boy, he added.

The aircraft came down in a residential area, crashing into a medical college hostel outside the airport during lunch time, in the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.

More than 240 people were killed in the crash. The dead included some on the ground. Police said a previously shared death toll of 294 was wrong due to some double-counted body parts.

Police said Viswashkumar was the sole passenger known so far to have survived but added that rescue operations were still ongoing.

“Chances are that there might be more survivors among the injured who are being treated in the hospital,” Chaudhary said.

Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Sachin Ravikumar in London and Sumit Khanna in Ahmedabad; Editing by Alison Williams and Sandra Maler

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By Christian Edwards, Antoinette Radford and Rhea Mogul, CNN

Photo: AFP / Sam Panthaky

In the blue skies above western India, flight AI171 was struggling to gain altitude.

The London-bound plane had barely left the runway at Ahmedabad airport before it was careening back to earth.

In a video, the aircraft is seen slowly sinking behind residential buildings, before a huge fireball blasts upward.

So far, there is only one reported survivor among the 242 people who were on board the Air India flight. In total, at least 290 people are dead, a senior doctor at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital told CNN. Among those killed were passengers on the flight, including some minors, local residents, and people who were inside the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel when the plane crashed into it.

A CNN analysis geolocating multiple social media videos and examining flight tracking data shows how the deadly incident unfolded.

Here’s what we know.

Passenger jet crashes in India shortly after takeoff with 242 people on board

Air India flight AI171 departed at 1.39pm local time from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in India’s western state of Gujarat, according to a statement from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner lost signal less than a minute after takeoff, at an altitude of 625 feet (190 metres), before crashing nearby.

1.39pm: Take-off

The Air India flight, AI171, took off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in India’s western state of Gujarat.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was headed to London Gatwick, and scheduled to land at 6.25pm local time.

Air India said 242 passengers and crew members were on board. That included 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.

Due to Britain’s large Indian diaspora, many of those on board may have been returning home after visiting family in India, or travelling to Britain to visit family there.

FlightRadar 24, a flight tracking site, said the plane used the full length of the 11,499-feet-long Runway 23 at the Ahmedabad airport in its takeoff.

The flight took off at 1.39pm and was due to land around nine hours later.

Photo: Amit Dave / Reuters via CNN Newsource

Seconds later: Mayday

Data from FlightRadar 24 shows the plane leaving the airport – before, suddenly, the tracking stops.

The aircraft had reached an altitude of 625 feet when its signal was lost, the tracker said.

FlightTracker24 data said it began to plunge down to earth at a speed of about 475 feet per minute.

Crash landing

In a video shared on social media by a person just under 200 meters from the airport perimeter, the plane is seen struggling to stay aloft.

As the plane gets closer to the ground, its tail begins to sag more deeply beneath its nose.

The aircraft gets further and further from the person filming, before it disappears below apartment buildings.

A huge red fireball then shoots into the sky. Other videos, shot from different locations in the city show massive plumes of black smoke.

The wreckage

The plane that had just a minute ago been safely on the Ahmedabad runway had now gone up in flames, just under a mile from the airport.

Shocking images showed the plane’s tail lodged in a concrete building. Officials said the bulk of the plane had crashed into a hostel housing doctors working in the local hospital. Inside the building, images showed metal plates of uneaten food on cafeteria-style tables – with a wall now blown out from the impact.

Locals began to gather around the main crash site as black smoke poured from its windows.

Videos showed grisly scenes unfolding on the street, as people began to try to put out the blaze and search for survivors.

The charred remains of the plane’s fuselage – still showing part of its registration, “VT-ANB” – can be seen lying on the debris-strewn street. Closer footage showed burned bodies being pulled from the ruins. In one video, a man retrieves a suitcase from the wreckage.

Photo: Amit Dave / Reuters via CNN Newsource

The aftermath

At least one passenger on board the flight survived, local police said. According to Reuters, senior police officer Vidhi Chaudhary said the man had been in seat 11A and added that there may be a few more survivors in the hospital.

The Hindustan Times named the survivor as a British national, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, and said he was receiving treatment. What appears to be a copy of the flight manifest, shared by news agency IANS, lists Vishwash Kumar Ramesh as having been assigned seat 11A and boarded.

The Hindustan Times said it spoke to Ramesh in a local hospital, and quoted him as saying: “Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.”

It is also not clear if others – on the street, or in the hostel – were killed when the plane came crashing down.

The Federation of All India Medical Association said between 50 and 60 students have been admitted to local hospitals after the flight crashed into the hostel at the BJ Medical College and Hospital. It said four or five students are missing and another two or three others are in intensive care.

If most of the rest of the passengers are confirmed dead, the crash will be the deadliest worldwide since 2014, when a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the incident was “heartbreaking beyond words” and that he was working with the authorities involved in the disaster. The plane crashed in India’s western Gujarat region, where Modi was born and where he served as chief state minister from 2001 to 2014.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes were “devastating.” His foreign minister, David Lammy, said the United Kingdom had activated a crisis team in both India’s capital, New Delhi, and in London.

Photo: AFP / Diptendu Dutta

The day after

While the authorities’ immediate focus is on confirming the number of casualties and providing support to the victims’ families, attention will soon turn to what caused the crash.

The plane model, the Boeing 787-Dreamliner, has a troubling track record. Last year, a whistleblower claimed that Boeing was taking shortcuts in its manufacturing of the model, claims disputed and described as “inaccurate” by Boeing. The Federal Aviation Administration in the United States is investigating the whistleblower’s formal complaint.

Shares in Boeing tanked by more than 7 percent in pre-market trade Thursday. Stocks in many other airlines also fell.

For Boeing, the crash is the latest in a series of incidents that have shaken consumers’ fears in the safety of its aircraft.

For Air India, the crash will likely damage a years-long effort to overturn its image as a struggling, debt-ridden airline to a safe, modern carrier appealing to India’s burgeoning middle class.

Air India last suffered a crash this deadly in 2010, when 158 people were killed after one of its jets overshot a runway in southern India.

-CNN