A plane disaster in India that has killed at least 240 people unfolded within a matter of minutes.
The Boeing 787-8 aircraft took off from Ahmedabad airport in western India at 1.38pm local time (8.08am BST) on Thursday, FlightRadar shows.
The Air India flight was destined for London Gatwick and had been due to arrive by 6.25pm London time.
But soon after takeoff the flight made a mayday call to air traffic control, India’s civil aviation authority said. There was no response to subsequent calls made by controllers to the aircraft and aviation tracker FlightRadar24 said it lost the aircraft’s signal in less than a minute.
The plane did not ascend very high before it rapidly plummeted into the city and exploding in a deadly fireball.
“Initial ADS-B data from flight #AI171 shows that the aircraft reached a maximum barometric altitude of 625 feet (airport altitude is about 200 feet) and then it started to descend with a vertical speed of -475 feet per minute,” the flight tracking service said.
Ordinarily the Dreamliner would reach a cruising altitude of 41,000ft on the roughly ten hour flight to London.
The plane went down in the Meghaninagar area, a densely populated neighbourhood in Ahmedabad.
The plane struck the BJ Medical College, which is part of the Civil Hospital, close to the airport, triggering a fireball that sent plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky. Students were reportedly having lunch there when the crash occurred.
TV footage showed flames rising behind homes and emergency services began dousing the flames and pulling people from the wreckage and surrounding buildings on stretchers.
Ahmedabad, where the crash occurred, is the largest city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. With an estimated population of more than 8.8 million people, it is the seventh-largest city in India.
The city is close to the border with Pakistan, and is about 370 miles by air from the Pakistani city of Karachi. Ahmedabad is a roughly 270-mile flight from Mumbai.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Air India’s parent company Tata Group, described the crash as a “tragic accident” and a “devastating event”.
He said the airline had set up an emergency centre and deployed a dedicated support team to assist the affected families.
“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event,” Mr Chandrasekaran said in a statement. “We are doing everything in our power to assist the emergency response teams at the site and to provide all necessary support and care.”
There are more than 1,000 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners in service with airlines globally, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, both of which maintain strong safety records. This is the first fatal crash involving the 787, according to the Aviation Safety Network.
The Dreamliner that crashed had been delivered to Air India in early 2014, having had its first flight in December 2013. The carrier, formerly owned by the Indian government, was privatised in 2022 and taken over by Tata Group. In 2024, it was merged with Vistara, a joint venture between Tata and Singapore Airlines.
Air India has long faced criticism for flight delays and cancellations, often due to a shortage of spare parts and grounded aircraft. A recent analysis by the Press Association named it the worst-performing airline for UK departures last year, with flights departing on average more than 45 minutes late.
The last fatal crash involving an Indian carrier occurred in 2020, when an Air India Express Boeing 737 overran a runway at Kozhikode in southern Kerala state, killing 21 people.
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