Victims' Families React, Eyewitnesses Tell Horrific Ordeal Of Air India Plane Crash In Ahmedabad
Family members of victims are reacting with shock and grief following the tragic Air India plane crash near Ahmedabad Airport on June 12, 2025. Eyewitnesses described the terrifying moment the London-bound flight went down, with thick smoke and flames visible from afar. BJP MLA Darshna Vaghela, who was nearby, said, 'I was in my office when the plane crashed and there was a loud thud.' Emergency services rushed to the site in Meghani Nagar as rescue operations continue. #airindiacrash #victimsfamilies #eyewitness #gujarat #vijayrupani #ahmedabadplanecrash #flightai171 #boeing7878dreamliner #meghaninagar #dharpursmoke #dgcainvestigation #amitshah #gujaratcm #airindia787crash #ahmedabadairportincident #londonflightcrash #airindiaemergency #planecrashjune12 #airindiaaccident #dreamlinercrash #ahmedabadrescue #airindianews #nationalconcern #aviationdisaster #indiansky #tragicevent #airindiaupdate #crashinvestigation #toi #toibharat
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Business Standard
9 minutes ago
- Business Standard
YSR Reddy to Madhavrao Scindia: Indian leaders who died in air crashes
The Air India crash in Ahmedabad on Thursday claimed the lives of 241 people out of 242 on board, Air India said in a statement. Former Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani is also among those who lost their lives. Several prominent figures and political leaders of India have lost their lives in plane crashes. The list includes the father of the Indian nuclear programme, Homi J Bhabha, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's son Sanjay Gandhi, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, and more. Here's a list of all those who lost their lives in an airplane crash: Politicians of India who lost their lives in an airplane crash: YS Rajasekhara Reddy (2009) Then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Rajasekhara Reddy, popularly known as YSR, died on 2 September 2009, when his Bell 430 chopper took off from Hyderabad for Chittoor district but crashed in the dense Nallamala forest due to bad weather. According to media reports, as many as 122 people died from shock or suicide after Reddy's death. Sanjay Gandhi (1980) Sanjay Gandhi, the son of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who played a significant role during the Emergency (1975–77), was a pilot himself. He lost his life on 23 June 1980 at the age of 33 when he lost control of his aeroplane during an aerobatic manoeuvre. The death of Indira Gandhi's political heir changed the course of Indian politics. Madhavrao Scindia (2001) Madhavrao Scindia, son of Jiwaji Rao Scindia, the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Gwalior during the British Raj, was himself the Minister of Civil Aviation once and a leader of the Indian National Congress. On 30 September 2001, he was going to Kanpur for a political rally when his private aircraft crashed. He lost his life along with all eight people on board. GMC Balayogi (2002) Lok Sabha Speaker and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader GMC Balayogi died in a chopper crash on 3 March 2002, when a private helicopter carrying him from Bhimavaram in West Godavari district crashed into a pond near Kaikalur in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. Cyprian Sangma (2004) Meghalaya's Rural Development Minister Cyprian Sangma and nine others, who were heading from Guwahati to Shillong on a Pawan Hans helicopter, died when the chopper crashed near Barapani lake, just 20 km from the state capital, on 22 September 2004. Om Prakash Jindal and Surender Singh (2005) Om Prakash Jindal, the chairman of the OP Jindal Group and Haryana Power Minister, lost his life in a helicopter crash in 2005 along with Agriculture Minister Surender Singh. The King Cobra helicopter was en route to Chandigarh from Delhi when it crashed in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur. Dorjee Khandu (2011) Then Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, along with four others, died on 30 April 2011 when the Pawan Hans helicopter carrying them from Tawang to Itanagar crashed in West Kameng district of the state. His body was recovered from Luguthang, near the China border. Other prominent figures and celebrities of India who lost their lives in an airplane crash: Homi Jehangir Bhabha (1966) Homi Jehangir Bhabha, India's pioneering nuclear physicist, died in a tragic crash aboard Air India Flight 101 on 24 January 1966. The plane crashed into Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps due to a miscommunication with Geneva air traffic control. His death remains mired in conspiracy, with many theories suggesting different reasons for it. CDS General Bipin Rawat (2021) India's first Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, died in a helicopter crash on 8 December 2021. Twelve people lost their lives in the crash along with Rawat and his wife Madhulika. The incident occurred near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu while he was en route from Sulur to Wellington. The standing committee report stated that the cause of the crash was 'Human Error (Aircrew)'. KS Sowmya Sathyanarayana (2004) South Indian actress K S Sowmya Sathyanarayana, popularly known as Soundarya, lost her life in an air crash on 17 April 2004. Amitabh Bachchan's co-star in Sooryavansham, was flying from Bengaluru to Karimnagar with her brother at the time of the crash. She was reportedly pregnant at the time.
Hindustan Times
12 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
‘Grassroots leader': Ex-CM died in crash
NEW DELHI: Seat 2D of the ill-fated Air India flight to London that crashed soon after take off from the Ahmedabad airport was occupied by the state's former chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Rupani. For hours after that, his aides were searching for him, at the site of the crash and the hospital. The emergence of a survivor late in the afternoon raised everyone's hopes. But early in the evening , Union minister and his party colleague CR Paatil announced that Rupani , 68, did not survive the crash. Expressing grief, President Droupadi Murmu posted on X, 'The country has lost the former chief minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani Ji in the tragedy. I express my heartfelt condolences to his family and admirers .' Expressing his condolence, defence minister Rajnath Singh posted on X, 'Deeply pained by the tragic demise of former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani ji in the unfortunate plane crash in Ahmedabad. He will be remembered as a grassroots leader who devoted his life for the development & welfare of his state. Condolences to his bereaved family.' 'The news of the demise of former Gujarat Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Shri Vijay Rupani ji in the unfortunate plane crash in Ahmedabad is extremely painful and shocking. This is an irreparable loss not only for Gujarat but also for Indian politics,' Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami posted on X. It was an abrupt end to a career that many thought still had a third act to come. The second act, of course, was the one that propelled Rupani into the national spotlight. As crowds began to swell outside Shri Kamalam, the party office in Gandhinagar, Rupani was named as the 16th chief minister of Gujarat, succeeding Anandiben Patel. Rupani had his work cut out. The Patidar agitation of 2015 had left an imprint on the state's polity as well as the social fabric; and Rupani, a Jain leader, was appointed to assuage the concerns of both the pro- and anti-reservation groups. The powerful Patidar community which was seeking inclusion in the state's OBC list had taken to the streets. Violence erupted across the state, and a change in leadership in the state was seen as a peace deal. 'He was not prone to making loud or controversial statements and true to his (Rashtriya Swayamsevak) Sangh training, he knew how to work silently behind the scenes. That itself was a key reason why the leadership chose him over Patel,' said a party colleague, speaking on condition of anonymity. Rupani, who was re-elected as CM in 2017, when the BJP won the assembly election, steered the state till his abrupt removal in 2021, also had the difficult task of mending fences with the Dalits after the ghastly attacks on individuals from the community in Una hit headlines. The pandemic that wreaked havoc across the globe in 2020 saw Gujarat hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons. The High Cout rapped the government for gaps in critical care facilities that saw the death toll in the state mount. The economic slowdown, also a consequence of the pandemic, also did not augur well for the government that was to face an election in 2022. All of that became his undoing. People close to Rupani said just as he had accepted his elevation with grace, he showed no resentment when the leadership informed him of his exit, along with his council of ministers, few months before the state went to the polls. The first act started in Burma, where Rupani was born into a trading family. Not long after, his family moved back to India. He studied at the Dharmendrasinhji Arts College and honed his ideology at the local Shakha run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He was, like many were at the time, a cricket enthusiast and a Kishore Kumar fan, and he dabbled in campus politics. He seemed set for a career in trading, but he found his calling in the stock market. A second party colleague recalled Rupani's association with the RSS and how he transformed from a reserved Sangh follower to an active student union member particularly during the Emergency, when he spent a year in jail. His political career began with the election to the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) in 1987 and he went on to become the mayor of Rajkot in 1996. Considered a protege of union home minister Amit Shah, the BJP's ace strategist, Rupani rose to the position of general secretary of the state unit and was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2006. In the state's politics he is credited for strengthening the party's hold in the Saurashtra region. A household name in Rajkot, the constituency he represented in the state assembly since 2014, Rupani raised eyebrows when he announced his retirement from electoral politics in November 2022, shortly after he was removed from the chief minister's post. His new role, he said, would be party work, and he spent the next few years working quietly behind the scenes, overseeing the party's work in Punjab and Chandigarh. Senior BJP leaders in Punjab said Rupani, who left Ludhiana on June 9 was first supposed to travel to England with his wife on June 1, but later deferred his visit and sent his wife to London, where their daughter resides. ' Finally, Rupani ji left for Gujraat on June 9, and informed all of us that he would be travelling to London on June 11. We can't believe that he is no more and was part of the ill fitted flight that crashed today' said senior vice president of the Punjab BJP unit, Subhash Sharma. (With inputs from Ravinder Vasudeva)
New Indian Express
43 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Vijay Rupani re-scheduled his London visit from June 5 to 12 due to Ludhiana (West) by-elections
CHANDIGARH: Former Chief Minister of Gujarat and Punjab Affairs-in-charge of BJP Vijay Rupani, who was among the 241 passengers killed in the tragic Air India crash in Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon, has been involved in Punjab politics for the last three years. In fact, he re-scheduled his visit to London from June 5 to June 12 due to the Ludhiana (West) by-elections. The constituency goes to polling on June 19, and the result will be announced on June 23. Rupani was specifically brought by the saffron party to take charge of the state in September 2022 after the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ended its alliance with the BJP. During this time, BJP's electoral performance improved. The party's vote share rose to 18.56 per cent from 6.6 percent in last year's parliamentary elections. Under his leadership, the party had been taking on the AAP-led Punjab Government over many issues, including the law and order and the drug menace. State BJP leadership described him as an ``acceptable, humble and down-to-earth human being' who deeply connected with the people across all levels of the state administration. He had planned to travel to London on June 5 to meet his daughter but his travel plans were delayed due to the Ludhiana (west) by-election. His wife, Anjali Rupani, had already left for London on June 5. The state party leaders recalled that Rupani was campaigning for the upcoming Ludhiana West assembly bypoll for weeks and had been diligently carrying out his responsibilities, including attending the filing of nomination papers by the party candidate Jiwan Gupta on June 2 from Ludhiana (West). On June 9, he had exuded confidence that Gupta would win the bypoll with a huge margin. Known as a protégé of Amit Shah, Rupani was a first-time MLA from Rajkot (West) when he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
