Air India confirms 53 Brits were on board UK-bound plane involved in horror crash
A total of 53 Brits were on board an Air India plane that crashed just moments after take-off in India, the airline has confirmed. The Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner, operating flight AI171 from Ahmedabad airport, was carrying 244 people when it went down.
Social media videos depict a massive explosion as the plane crashes into a residential area. Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, director general of India's directorate of civil aviation, informed the Associated Press that the crash occurred in the Meghani Nagar area at 1.38pm local time (9.08am BST). Mr Kidwai disclosed that the passenger count stood at 232, accompanied by 12 crew members.
Ahmedabad airport has launched its emergency contingency protocols following this disaster. This incident marks the first recorded crash for a Boeing 787 aircraft, per records from the Aviation Safety Network database.
READ MORE: Air India plane bound for UK crashes with more than 240 passengers on board
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In a post on X, formerly on Twitter, said: "Air India confirms that flight AI171, from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, was involved in an accident today after take-off.
"The flight, which departed from Ahmedabad at 1338 hrs, was carrying 242 passengers and crew members on board the Boeing 787-8 aircraft. Of these, 169 are Indian nationals, 53 are British nationals, 1 Canadian national and 7 Portuguese nationals.
"The injured are being taken to the nearest hospitals. "We have also set up a dedicated passenger hotline number 1800 5691 444 to provide more information.
"Air India is giving its full cooperation to the authorities investigating this incident. Air India will release further information via regular updates on its X handle (https://x.com/airindia) and on http://airindia.com."
Flight AI171, operating Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, was involved in an incident today, 12 June 2025." They added: "At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates at the earliest."
Flightradar24, the flight tracking service, shared on social platform X: "We are following reports of a crash of Air India flight #AI171 from Ahmedabad to London." It continued: "We received the last signal from the aircraft at 08:08:51 UTC (shortly before 9.09am BST), just seconds after take off.
"The aircraft involved is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with registration VT-ANB." Flightradar24 concluded, also noting that the aircraft signal ceased "less than a minute after take-off".
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