What is Air India's safety record?
Why you can trust Sky News
An Air India plane carrying 242 people has crashed in Ahmedabad, in one of the country's worst aviation disasters in decades.
Video footage shows the Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane - which had been bound for London Gatwick - coming down just outside Ahmedabad airport, where it hit a doctors' hostel in a residential area.
Air India, which started operations in 1932, and its subsidiary Air India Express have suffered several fatal and non-fatal crashes over the years.
According to Aviation Safety Network (ASN) the most recent fatal crashes were:
• May 2010: Boeing 737-800 (Air India Express) overshot the runway at Mangalore, India, and crashed into a gorge, killing 158 people.
• August 2020: Boeing 737-800 (Air India Express) after landing in Karipur, India, the aircraft left the runway, rolled down an embankment and broke up, killing 21 people.
Air India's history
The airline, the country's flagship carrier, is a private company, majority owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata Group and minority owned by Singapore Airlines.
The airline operates more than 5,600 weekly flights and connects more than 90 domestic and international destinations, with a fleet of 208 aircraft.
It flies more than 120,000 passengers every day and offers connectivity to over 800 destinations through more than 75 partners.
It was founded in 1932 and was owned by the Indian government from 1953 to 2022.
Here are some recent non-fatal incidents, according to ASN, which references various sources:
• September 2024: Boeing 737-8HG (Air India Express) suffered engine problems after taking off from Delhi, which was confirmed by the airline, and the aircraft returned to the airport.
• October 2024: Boeing 737-8HG (Air India Express) declared an emergency immediately after take-off due to a hydraulic issue in Tamil Nadu, eventually landing safely, which a local minister said had affected the landing gear.
• December 2024: Airbus A320-251N started the take-off roll (the start of building up speed to take off) on a taxiway instead of the runway at Goa, according to the aviation safety regulator, but stopped when alerted by a tower controller.
• December 2024: Boeing 737-86N (Air India Express) returned to land at Kochi after tyre debris was found on the runway, according to Onmanorama, a local news outlet in Kerala.
• January 2025: Airbus A320-251N suffered an engine shutdown after departing Bangalore and landed safely at the same location, according to the Times of India.
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