What we know about the Air India plane crash, investigation
A large passenger plane with 242 people on board crashed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, shortly after its departure for London Gatwick Airport. Officials say 241 of the passengers and crew were confirmed dead, but one passenger survived. Casualties were also reported on the ground.
"Air India confirms that flight AI171, from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, was involved in an accident today after take-off," the airline said in a statement posted to social media.
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, left Ahmedabad Airport at 1:38 p.m. local time. The plane went down minutes later in a residential area, hitting buildings, including the dining area of a medical college, officials said.
Although law enforcement initially told reporters that no one on the plane survived, officials later confirmed that one man had survived and was being treated at a local hospital.
Here's what we know so far.
Air India plane crashes in Ahmedabad
The director general of India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, told The Associated Press that flight AI171 crashed five minutes after its departure from Ahmedabad airport. The live tracking site Flight Radar reported receiving a final signal from the aircraft only seconds after it took off.
Data collected by Flight Radar showed the jet briefly reaching a maximum barometric altitude of 625 feet before beginning to descend at a vertical speed of about 475 feet per minute — a steep dive.
Video shared online and verified by CBS News showed the jet low over buildings near the airport, descending toward the ground and disappearing from view. An enormous ball of fire and smoke erupted seconds later.
What caused the Air India crash?
The cause of Thursday's crash was not immediately clear. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is leading the investigation.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board confirmed it will lead a U.S. team currently heading to India to assist the local authorities. U.S. Federal Aviation Administration officials also said they are deploying teams to India to assist in the investigation alongside the NTSB.
"When an international incident occurs, that government leads the investigation," the FAA said in a statement. "In the event assistance is requested, the NTSB is the official U.S. representative and the FAA provides technical support. We stand ready to launch a team immediately in coordination with the NTSB."
Air India and Boeing said they are prepared to cooperate and support the investigation.
In videos of the crash, the plane appeared to have its landing gear down and flaps up at a time in the flight when those should have been reversed, former NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt told CBS News.
Aviation consultant John M. Cox told the AP the aircraft had its nose up and was not climbing, which investigators are expected to look at.
"At this point, it's very, very, very early, we don't know a whole lot," he said. "But the 787 has very extensive flight data monitoring — the parameters on the flight data recorder are in the thousands — so once we get that recorder, they'll be able to know pretty quickly what happened."
The plane's black boxes, which consist of the flight data recorder and voice recorder, had not been recovered yet.
India's civil aviation minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, said he was "shocked and devastated" by the crash.
"We are on highest alert," Kinjarapu wrote in a social media post. "I am personally monitoring the situation and have directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action."
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said "the tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us" and called it "heartbreaking beyond words."
Map shows where Air India plane crashed
The Air India crash happened in the city of Ahmedabad, near the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, where the plane had departed. Ahmedabad is located in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
Victims of the Air India crash
Air India said in a statement that 241 people on the plane died in the crash. "The sole survivor is being treated in a hospital," the airline said in a statement.
The passengers of the plane were identified as 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national, Air India said. The airline said the survivor is a British national of Indian origin.
Indian media outlets identified U.K. citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh as the man in a local hospital who said he had survived the crash. He had been listed as the passenger in seat 11A on the flight manifest shared by Indian authorities.
Dr. Dhaval Gameti at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital told the AP that he had examined Ramesh. While the survivor "was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body ... he seems to be out of danger," Gameti said.
At least five medical students died when part of the plane hit the dining area of B.J. Medical College, Divyansh Singh, the vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Association told the AP. Singh said almost 50 people who were in the building are injured — some critically.
"We are in close contact with our peers in the hospital who are on a lookout for more people feared buried in the debris," he said.
The Indian Army was assisting civil authorities in combing through the debris and helping to treat the injured, the AP reported.
London Gatwick Airport said it was working with Air India to establish hotlines for relatives of flight AI171's passengers.
"London Gatwick is liaising closely with Air India and a reception centre for relatives of those on board is being set up where information and support will be provided," airport officials said in a statement. "British nationals who require consular assistance or have concerns about friends or family should call 020 7008 5000. Air India have set up a dedicated passenger hotline number 1800 5691 444 to provide more information."
Spotlight on Boeing
The Air India crash appeared to be the first involving a Boeing Dreamliner, according to the company's statistical summary of commercial jet accidents between 1954 and 2024.
The aircraft manufacturer has described this model as the aviation industry's "best-selling passenger widebody of all time."
"We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected," a spokesperson for Boeing said in a statement to CBS News several hours after the incident.
On Wall Street, shares of Boeing fell $15.34, or 7.2%, to $198.66 in pre-market trading.
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Anger and grief in Ahmedabad after India's deadliest crash in decades
Advertisement As of Thursday night, an estimated 269 people were confirmed dead, according to senior police official Vishaka Dabral. But students and faculty at the college believe the number of casualties on the ground may be higher, considering how busy the dining hall was at the time of the crash. Within a minute, the plane had ascended, leveled off, and then plummeted to the earth, erupting into a ball of fire, according to CCTV footage verified by The Washington Post. 'In a minute, everything has changed,' Vagadaya said from the hospital auditorium, where relatives waited Friday to give their blood to help identify loved ones who died in Thursday's crash, and had within a day morphed from a place of panic to a makeshift gathering site for mourners. The plane had been carrying 169 Indians, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian, according to Air India. The 12 crew members were Indian. Advertisement The pilots of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner - captain Sumeet Sabharwal and first officer Clive Kundar - had issued a 'Mayday' distress call shortly after takeoff on Thursday, India's civil aviation regulatory authority said in a statement provided via WhatsApp. There was no further communication from the cockpit, it said. Air India did not respond to requests for comment for this article. Aviation experts caution that it is too early to determine the cause. India's civil aviation minister tweeted on Friday evening that investigators had retrieved the plane's flight data recorder, one of two 'black box' recorders that airlines typically have. 'This marks an important step forward in the investigation,' Ram Mohan Naidu said. Mohan Ranganathan, a former Boeing 737 instructor pilot, said the CCTV footage shows the aircraft's nose rising again during descent, a possible indication that the pilot stalled while attempting to regain lift. He said preliminary reports can be issued after two weeks of finding the flight data recorder, but a final report can take time. Other analysts pointed to abnormal takeoff configurations. Jeff Guzzetti, a former Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said the videos show the landing gear remained down and the flaps unelevated. 'It happened during the daytime. The visibility was good. So what went wrong?' wondered Jitender Bhargava, a former Air India executive director and author of 'The Descent of Air India,' a book about the financial downfall of the airline. Rahul Bhatia, a medical student at the medical college, was frantic on Friday morning, switching between phone calls and responding to WhatsApp groups, trying to help his classmates find the missing. Advertisement He was still in shock from the stories coming in. He heard that a friend's wife, seven months pregnant, was in the dormitory when a plane ripped through the ceiling and wall. Her unborn child was seen outside her body, Bhatia said he heard - a report that The Post could not independently verify. 'I'll remember this for the rest of my life.' Major aviation disasters are rare in India, though Air India, the country's former national carrier, has been involved in several deadly incidents. In 2020, a flight operated by Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India, skidded off a runway during a heavy downpour in southern India and broke into pieces, killing 21 who had been on board. In 2010, 158 people died in Mangalore, western India, when an Air India Express plane overshot the runway while landing and crashed down the side of a hill. In 1978, all 213 people aboard Air India Flight 855 perished after the plane fell into the Arabian Sea off the coast of Mumbai shortly after takeoff. There has been 'no accountability,' Ranganathan said. Since its privatization in 2022, Air India - now owned by the Tata Group - has faced a string of regulatory setbacks. In March this year, Air India fired a simulator trainer pilot after a whistleblower alleged that the pilot had failed to properly discharge his duties and misrepresented the number of hours for which simulator training was carried out. Two months before the whistleblower incident, India's civil aviation regulator fined the airline 3,000,000 rupees (about $35,000) after it allowed a pilot to operate a flight without completing the mandatory takeoffs and landings. In March 2024, the airline was found in violation of flight duty time limitations - rules that help prevent pilot fatigue - and fined 8,000,000 rupees (about $93,000). Advertisement Bhargava said none of the violations would have led to safety hazards that 'translate into this tragedy.' 'But, no doubt,' he said, 'at the end of the day, the accountability is with the airline.' 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Duffy said the NTSB and FAA were deploying investigators to assist India in its investigation of the deadly plane crash. Duffy added that it was still very early in the investigation, but promised to take action if there were safety failures. 'If there are initial factors of concern in regards to safety, we will be made aware and we will take action. When one of these planes go down, we take it very seriously,' he said. Advertisement Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday visited the crash site, touring the wreckage and speaking with Viswash Kumar Ramesh, the sole survivor of the 242 people aboard the flight. News outlet ANI released an image of Modi looking up at the aircraft's mangled tail jutting out of the college's wall. The prime minister did not speak to reporters. Back at the Civil Hospital, still bedridden from his injuries, Ramesh spoke briefly to local media. 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