By AJIT SOLANKI and RAJESH ROY, Related Press
AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — An Air India passenger aircraft sure for London with greater than 240 individuals on board crashed and exploded after takeoff Thursday in India’s northwestern metropolis of Ahmedabad, and there have been no identified survivors, officers stated.
Black smoke billowed from the location the place the aircraft crashed right into a medical faculty hostel and burst into flames close to the airport in Ahmedabad, a metropolis of greater than 5 million and the capital of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s house state.
Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the aircraft, which might have been absolutely loaded with gasoline shortly after takeoff, and adjoining multistory buildings with water. Charred our bodies lay on the bottom and elements of the fuselage have been scattered across the website. Indian military groups have been aiding civil authorities to clear particles and assist deal with the injured.
A video on social media confirmed the jet slowly descending as if it have been touchdown. As quickly because it disappeared out of view behind rows of homes, a large fireball crammed the sky. The AP was capable of confirm the video by matching up the flight path of the aircraft from the runway with the crash website and the close by residential space.
On the crash website, the tail cone of the plane with broken stabilizer fins nonetheless hooked up to it was lodged close to the highest of one of many buildings.
In a social media put up, Modi referred to as the crash “heartbreaking past phrases” and stated “my ideas are with everybody affected.”
Metropolis police chief G.S. Malik instructed The Related Press that the useless might embody each passengers and people on the bottom.
“Actual figures on casualties are being ascertained,” he stated.
Sambit Patra, a lawmaker from Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Social gathering, stated Gujarat’s former chief minister, Vijay Rupani, was among the many useless.
Divyansh Singh, vp of a medical affiliation, stated at the least 5 college students from the medical faculty have been killed on the bottom and 50 others have been injured. Singh stated a few of them have been in essential situation and many individuals are “feared buried within the particles.”
Air India stated the flight sure for London Gatwick Airport was carrying 242 passengers and crew, with 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian aboard. The Boeing 787-8 crashed right into a residential space referred to as Meghani Nagar 5 minutes after taking off at 1:38 p.m. (08:08 GMT), Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director normal of the directorate of civil aviation, instructed AP.
Rescuers work on the website of an airplane that crashed in India’s northwestern metropolis of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Picture/Ajit Solanki)
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Rescuers work on the website of an airplane that crashed in India’s northwestern metropolis of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Picture/Ajit Solanki)
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The primary crash of a Boeing 787
That is the primary crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, based on the Aviation Security Community database.
Boeing stated it was “working to assemble extra info.”
Aviation marketing consultant John M. Cox, the CEO of Security Working Methods, instructed the AP from Los Angeles that whereas the primary photos of the crash have been poor, it appeared the plane had its nostril up and was not climbing, which is among the issues that investigators would take a look at.
“At this level, it’s very, very, very early; we don’t know a complete lot,” he stated. “However the 787 has very in depth flight knowledge monitoring — the parameters on the flight knowledge recorder are within the hundreds — so as soon as we get that recorder, they’ll be capable to know fairly rapidly what occurred.”
The a wide-body, twin-engine plane was launched in 2009, and greater than 1,000 have been delivered to dozens of airways, based on the flightradar24 web site.
Air India’s chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, stated that in the mean time “our main focus is on supporting all of the affected individuals and their households.”
“Our ideas and deepest condolences are with the households and family members of all these affected by this devastating occasion,” he stated.
UK guarantees help
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer referred to as the crash “devastating” and British Cupboard minister Lucy Powell stated the federal government will present “all of the help that it might probably” to these affected by the crash.
“That is an unfolding story, and it’ll undoubtedly be inflicting an enormous quantity of fear and concern to the various, many households and communities right here and people ready for the arrival of their family members,” she instructed lawmakers within the Home of Commons.
“We ship our deepest sympathy and ideas to all these households, and the federal government will present all of the help that it might probably with these in India and people on this nation as nicely,” she added.
Britain has very shut ties with India. There have been almost 1.9 million individuals within the nation of Indian descent, based on the 2021 U.Ok. census.
Condolences additionally poured in from King Charles III, who stated he and his spouse, Queen Camilla, have been “desperately shocked” by the crash.
“Our particular prayers and deepest doable sympathy are with the households and buddies of all these affected by this appallingly tragic incident throughout so many countries, as they await information of their family members,” he stated in a press release.
Earlier air disasters in India
The final main passenger aircraft crash in India was in 2020, when an Air India Categorical Boeing-737 skidded off a hilltop runway in southern India, killing 21 individuals.
The worst air catastrophe in India was on Nov. 12, 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airways flight collided midair with a Kazakhstan Airways Flight close to Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 on board the 2 planes.
The crash comes days earlier than the opening of the Paris Air Present, a serious aviation expo the place Boeing and European rival Airbus will showcase their plane and battle for jet orders from airline prospects.
Boeing has been in restoration mode for greater than six years after Lion Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 Max 8, plunged into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 individuals on board. 5 months later, Ethiopian Airways Flight 302, a Boeing 737 Max 8, crashed after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 157 passengers and crew members.
Shares of Boeing Co. tumbled almost 9% earlier than buying and selling opened within the U.S.
Roy reported from New Delhi. Related Press writers Sheikh Saaliq in Srinagar, India, Pan Pylas, Kelvin Chan and Brian Melley in London and Annika Wolters, David Rising, Adam Schreck and Lorian Belanger in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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