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, in what authorities called the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade. Ahmedabad police chief G.S. Malik said among the dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the main city.

Police in Ahmedabad also said at least one person survived the crash of an Air India plane; that survivor has been identified as a British citizen named Vishwash Kumar Ramesh. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, with 242 people on board, lifted off from Ahmedabad Airport at about 1:38 p.m. local time en route to London Gatwick Airport. It gave a Mayday call, signaling an emergency, but there was no response from the aircraft before it crashed onto a medical college hostel after reaching an altitude of 625 feet shortly after takeoff. The passengers included 217 adults, 11 children and two infants, with Air India confirming that 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian. Parts of the plane’s body were scattered around the smouldering building into which it crashed. The tail of the plane was stuck on top of the building.

Part of the plane struck the dining area of B.J. Medical College. Federation of All India Medical Association Vice President Dr. Divyaansh Singh announced in a X post that reports indicate there are 10 to 20 casualties from its student body and resident doctors.

U.S. aerospace safety consultant Anthony Brickhouse told Reuters that videos of the aircraft show that the landing gear was down at a phase of flight when it would typically be up. India’s Civil Aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said that a formal investigation has been initiated by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.

According to the Aviation Safety Network database, it was the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which was introduced in 2009 and has more than 1,000 planes operating globally (according to Boeing). The plane that crashed on Thursday flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, per Flightradar24.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday morning on X that it will be leading a team of U.S. investigators going to India to assist in the crash investigation: “The government is constituting a high-level committee comprising experts from multiple disciplines to examine the matter in detail.”

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.

Editorial credit: Soos Jozsef / Shutterstock.com

Summary

Companies Escape hailed as “miracle of seat 11A” in the media

More than 240 people killed in the crash

Hospital official says survivor is shaken by the trauma

NEW DELHI, June 13 (Reuters) – The sole survivor of the Air India plane crash that killed more than 240 people said on Friday he hardly believed he was alive as he recounted seeing others dying near him as he escaped out of a broken emergency exit.

Ramesh Viswashkumar, who police said was in seat 11A near the emergency exit and managed to squeeze through the broken hatch, was filmed after Thursday’s crash limping on the street in a blood-stained T-shirt with bruises on his face.

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That social media footage of Viswashkumar, a British national of Indian origin, has been broadcast across India’s news channels since the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted in a ball of fire after it plummeted onto a medical college hostel moments after taking off from Ahmedabad.

It was the worst aviation disaster in a decade and his escape is being hailed as the “miracle of seat 11A” in the British media.

“I don’t believe how I survived. For some time I thought I was also going to die,” 40-year-old Viswashkumar told Indian state broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed on Friday.

“But when I opened my eyes, I realised I was alive and I tried to unbuckle myself from the seat and escape from where I could. It was in front of my eyes that the air hostess and others (died).”

He was travelling with his brother Ajay, who had been seated in a different row, members of his family have said.

“The side of the plane I was in landed on the ground, and I could see that there was space outside the aircraft, so when my door broke I tried to escape through it and I did,” Viswashkumar said.

“The opposite side of the aircraft was blocked by the building wall so nobody could have come out of there.”

Item 1 of 5 Members of local community stand outside family home of Ramesh Viswashkumar, a British survivor of the London-bound Air India aircraft crash near Ahmedabad Airport in India, in Leicester, Britain, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Phil Noble [1/5] Members of local community stand outside family home of Ramesh Viswashkumar, a British survivor of the London-bound Air India aircraft crash near Ahmedabad Airport in India, in Leicester, Britain, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Phil Noble Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Viswashkumar suffered burns and bruises and has been kept under observation, an official at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad told Reuters by phone, requesting anonymity.

“His escape … and without any grievous injury, was nothing short of a miracle. He also realises that and is a bit shaken by the trauma of it too,” the official said.

FAMILY HEARTBROKEN OVER BROTHER

Police said some people at the hostel and others on the ground were also killed in the crash. Rescue workers were searching for missing people and aircraft parts in the charred buildings of the hostel on Friday to help find the cause of the crash.

Air India has said the investigation will take time. Planemaker Boeing has said a team of experts is ready to go to India to help in the probe.

Viswashkumar said the plane seemed to come to a standstill in midair for a few seconds shortly after take-off and the green and white cabin lights were turned on.

He said he could feel the engine thrust increasing but then the plane “crashed with speed into the hostel”.

At the family home in Leicester, central England, Viswashkumar’s cousin Hiren Kantilal said they had spoken with him via video call that morning and relatives were urgently trying to make arrangements to travel to India.

Asked about Viswashkumar’s brother, Kantilal said: “We can’t describe in the words, we are totally heartbroken.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in his home state of Gujarat to visit the crash site, met Viswashkumar in hospital on Friday.

Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Phil Noble in Leicester; Editing by Saad Sayeed and Alison Williams

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The crash of a Boeing 787 passenger jet in India minutes after takeoff on Thursday is putting the spotlight back on a beleaguered manufacturer though it was not immediately clear why the plane crashed.

The Air India 787 went down in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad with more than 240 people aboard shortly after takeoff, authorities said. It was the first fatal crash since the plane, also known as the Dreamliner, went into service in 2009, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. Boeing shares fell more than 4% in afternoon trading.

The 787 was the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium ion batteries, which are lighter, recharge faster and can hold more energy than other types of batteries. In 2013 the 787 fleet was temporarily grounded because of overheating of its lithium-ion batteries, which in some cases sparked fires.

737 Max

The Max version of Boeing’s best-selling 737 airplane has been the source of persistent troubles for Boeing after two of the jets crashed. The crashes, one in Indonesia in 2018 and another in Ethiopia in 2019, killed 346.

The problem stemmed from a sensor providing faulty readings that pushed the nose down, leaving pilots unable to regain control. After the second crash, Max jets were grounded worldwide until the company redesigned the system.

Last month, the Justice Department reached a deal to allow Boeing to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading U.S. regulators about the Max before the two crashes.

Worries about the plane flared up again after a door plug blew off a Max operated by Alaska Airlines, leading regulators to cap Boeing’s production at 38 jets per month.

Financial woes

Boeing posted a loss of $11.8 billion in 2024, bringing its total losses since 2019 to more than $35 billion.

The company’s financial problems were compounded by a strike by machinists who assemble the airplanes plane at its factories in Renton and Everett, Washington, which halted production at those facilities and hampered Boeing’s delivery capability.

For the first three months of 2025, Boeing reported a narrower loss of $31 million compared with the previous year. CEO Kelly Ortberg said Boeing made progress on stabilizing operations during the quarter.

Orders and deliveries

The stepped-up government scrutiny and the workers’ strike resulted in Boeing’s aircraft deliveries sliding last year.

Boeing said it supplied 348 jetliners in 2024, which was a third fewer than the 528 that it reported for the previous year.

The company delivered less than half the number of commercial aircraft to customers than its main rival Airbus, which reported delivering 766 commercial jets in 2023.

Still, Boeing’s troubles haven’t turned off airline customers from buying its jets. Last month the company secured big orders from two Middle Eastern customers. The deals included a $96 billion order for 787 and 777X jets from Qatar, which it said was the biggest order for 787s and wide body jets in the company’s.

Doctor and family among Air India crash victims

1 hour ago Share Save Dan Hunt BBC News, East Midlands Share Save

Supplied Derby Hindu Temple said Dr Prateek Joshi, his wife and three children died in the crash

A doctor and his family have been named among the victims of the Air India plane crash. More than 240 people were killed on Thursday when a Boeing 787 bound for Gatwick crashed shortly after take off in Ahmedabad. Dr Prateek Joshi, a radiologist at Royal Derby Hospital, his wife and three children were on board the flight, the Derby Hindu Temple in Pear Tree said. In a post on social media, a spokesperson for the temple said they were praying “to give strength to the bereaved family to bear this immense loss”.

The plane was carrying 242 people when it crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport, in western India. There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian on the flight.

Former neighbour “heartbroken” after plane crash deaths

Neil Ryan, 42, a former neighbour of the family, said the news of their death was “absolutely devastating” and described them as “just the nicest family”. He said: “The family were really unassuming, genuine kind people, honestly. It’s heartbreaking.” Mr Ryan told the BBC the family moved in next door about 2019, and lived there for a couple of years, before Dr Joshi’s wife and children moved back to India and he downsized. He added: “When they left, he came round – we always spoke to each other – he came round with a big bag of goodies, there was a bottle of gin, there was cakes, tea, all sorts. “They were wonderful.”

‘New life chapter’

Mario Dimitrio Donadio, a locum radiologist who worked with Dr Joshi, told the BBC he felt a “darkness and heavy sensation” in his heart when he found out the news. He described his former colleague and flatmate as a “very good professional” and said he was “very happy” when they went out for a meal with other radiologists in May. Dr Donadio added Dr Joshi was “really ecstatic” when he told him a few days ago, that he was planning on bringing his family in India to live with him in the UK to start a “new chapter in life”. “He was always very jolly, he was a sunny character, always bright and sparkling,” Dr Donadio said. “The world is at loss, to lose people like him.”

Flight AI171 between Ahmedabad and London Gatwick took off on Thursday afternoon, but struggled to gain altitude and crashed 30 seconds afterwards. The plane gave a mayday call to air traffic control, India’s aviation regulator said. No response was given by the aircraft after that. It crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar.

Derby Hindu Temple The family were described as “genuine kind people” by a former neighbour

A spokesperson for Derby Hindu Temple said: “It is with deep sorrow that we inform you that Dr Prateek Joshi and his family were on board the Air India flight that tragically crashed en route from Ahmedabad to London. “Dr Joshi, a radiologist at Royal Derby Hospital, who lived in Derby were devotees of our Mandir and supported us through their sincere service and dedication. “We pray to Lord Shiva to grant eternal peace to the departed souls and to give strength to the bereaved family to bear this immense loss.”

The survivability is “extremely limited” in plane crashes similar to the one that happened in Ahmedabad yesterday, an expert said.

A “large, heavy” aircraft will be torn apart by the “enormous” amount of energy it carries as the plane hits the ground, Trevor Bock, a safety consultant at Aviation Safety Asia explained.

“We’re talking thousands of kilograms of weight,” Bock said in a phone interview, adding that the plane, which has just taken off, had “a lot of fuel.”

It’s “pretty well guaranteed” that there will be a fire in an uncontrolled crash such as this, he said.

Yesterday’s crash was the first major incident for a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. The model, Bock said, is “pretty robust” one with an excellent safety record. “It’s extremely capable aircraft.”

Only one out of the 242 people onboard survived the plane crash, officials said.