The airline says 242 passengers and crew members were on board Flight 171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick.
Published On 12 Jun 2025
More than 200 people have been killed when an Air India flight crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in western India, authorities say, with only one survivor found so far.
The Boeing 787-8 aircraft bound for London Gatwick Airport was carrying 242 passengers and crew when it came down on Thursday in a residential area, crashing into a medical college hostel outside the airport during lunch hour.
City Police Commissioner GS Malik told the news agency Reuters that 204 bodies had been recovered from the crash site.
Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground.
At least one person survived the crash, after jumping out of an emergency exit, a senior police officer, Vidhi Chaudhary, told Reuters.
Police commissioner GS Malik was quoted as saying that the survivor, later named as Ramesh Viswashkumar, was being treated in hospital.
Chaudhary added that the “chances are that there might be more survivors among the injured who are being treated in the hospital”.
Footage showed smoke billowing from the crash site. Parts of the plane’s body were scattered around the building into which it crashed, photographs and videos from the area showed. The tail of the plane was stuck on top of the building.
Mayday
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad’s airport, the aircraft gave a mayday call, signalling an emergency, but after that, there was no response, Reuters reported.
The aviation-tracking site Flightradar24 said the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, a wide-body, twin-engined plane that is one of the most modern passenger aircraft in service.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi,