An Air India plane bound for London carrying 242 people crashed shortly after take-off in western India on Thursday.
Videos showed a huge plume of black smoke billowing into the sky. Rescue workers have scrambled to put out the fire and search for potential survivors.
Here’s what we know.
What happened and when?
The flight, AI171, took off at 1:39 p.m. local time (4:09 a.m. ET) 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. It was headed to London Gatwick, and scheduled to land at 6:25 p.m. local time (1:25 p.m. ET).
But shortly after take-off, the plane gave a Mayday call to air traffic control (ATC), the Indian civil aviation authorities said.
“Thereafter no response was given by the aircraft to the calls made by ATC. Aircraft immediately after departure from Runway 23, fell on ground outside the airport perimeter,” the statement said.
The plane had reached an altitude of 625 feet when its signal was lost, according to data from flight tracker FlightRadar24.
Videos showed the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner descending, before disappearing behind buildings and bursting into a fireball.
Gujarat is also the home state of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi was chief minister of the state from 2001 to 2014.
The plane hit a hostel for doctors when it crashed, with images showing the tail of the plane protruding from the building. In the debris-strewn street below, rescue workers rushed to put out the flames and search among the charred wreckage for survivors.
What plane was involved?
The crash is the first major incident involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner since the aircraft first came into service in 2011, according to the aircraft maker.
Boeing said it is “working to gather more information” about the crash.
The manufacturer said there are more than 1,175 Dreamliner passenger aircrafts in service, accounting for 2,100 flights each day.
Shares in Boeing tanked by more than 7% in pre-market trade Thursday following the crash of one of its passenger aircraft in India.
Stocks in many other airlines also fell, including London-listed IAG – the parent company of British Airways. Shares in Germany’s Lufthansa, United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines also fell on Thursday.
Who was on board?
Air India said there were 169 Indian nationals on the flight, in addition to 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.
The UK and India have strong cultural ties and a complicated history dating back to Britain’s colonial era. There is a large Indian diaspora in the UK of about 1.9 million people – or 3.1% of the population – according to the latest census data in 2021.
The Ahmedabad city police commissioner told the Associated Press that there appears to be no survivors from the crash.
Modi said the crash was “heartbreaking beyond words” and that he was in touch with the authorities involved in the disaster. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes were “devastating.”
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Air India, said the carrier was “doing everything in our power to assist the emergency response teams at the site and to provide all necessary support and care to those impacted.”
How rare are incidents like this?
If the death toll is confirmed the crash is the deadliest worldwide since 2014 when a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
Air India was bought by Indian multinational conglomerate Tata Group in 2022, and was widely regarded as a historic homecoming. Originally founded by J.R.D. Tata in 1932 before being nationalized in 1953, the deal marked the return of Air India to its original owners after nearly 70 years of government control.
Prior to the purchase, Air India was seen as a struggling, debt-ridden airline. The carrier has seen a few rare but high-profile plane crashes in recent years.
In 2020, at least 18 people died in 2020 after an Air India Express plane – a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India – crashed in the southern state of Kerala after skidding off the runway.
In 2018, an Air India Boeing 737 aircraft was damaged after hitting an airport wall during takeoff.
And in 2010, 158 people were killed after an Air India plane crashed after the jet overshot a runway in southern India.
These incidents spurred Indian authorities to improve safety and infrastructure, but challenges remain, including airspace congestion.
Since Air India’s 2022 acquisition, the airline has undergone a significant transformation and modernization effort as it looks to tap into the demand of India’s burgeoning middle class.
