Air India plane with 242 on board crashes at Ahmedabad airport
An Air India airliner bound for London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from India's western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, the airline and police said, without specifying whether there were any fatalities.
The plane was headed to Gatwick airport in the UK, Air India said, while police officers said it crashed in a civilian area near the airport.
Aviation tracking site Flightradar24 said the aircraft was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, one of the most modern passenger aircraft in service.
'We are ascertaining the details and will share further updates,' Air India said on X.
Plane crash site in Ahemdabad, Gujarat. Emergency Rescue work continues. #India pic.twitter.com/aZyhswbQWQ
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) June 12, 2025
This is how the Air India Aircraft in Ahemdabad, Gujarat crashed earlier this afternoon. Crash caught on camera. #India pic.twitter.com/ys1KnReCV3
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) June 12, 2025
There were 169 Indians on board, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese and one Canadian, a source said.
The crash occurred just after the aircraft took off, TV channels reported. One channel showed the aircraft taking off over a residential area and then disappearing from the screen before flames rose into the sky from beyond the houses.
Visuals also showed debris on fire, with thick black smoke rising into the sky near the airport.
They also showed visuals of people being moved in stretchers and being taken away in ambulances.
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad airport, the aircraft departed at 1.39pm (8.09am GMT) from runway 23. It gave a 'Mayday' call, signalling an emergency, but thereafter there was no response from the aircraft.
Flightradar24 also said it received the last signal from the aircraft seconds after it took off.
'The aircraft involved is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with registration VT-ANB,' it said.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The last fatal plane crash in India involved Air India Express, the airline's low-cost arm.
The airline's Boeing-737 overshot a 'table top' runway at Kozhikode International Airport in southern India in 2020. The plane skidded off the runway, plunging into a valley and crashing nose first into the ground.
Twenty-one people were killed in that crash.
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Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading The SANDF top brass, led by Chief of the SANDF, General Rudzani Maphwanya on Sunday night welcomed a contingent of 257 jubilant members of the South African National Defence Force at the Air Force Base Waterkloof in Tshwane. Image: Jonisayi Maromo/IOL 'Some of you, when we met in Goma (city in DRC) you were saying this old man is going to leave us here. I heard it. Now you are back home, welcome back home. I am smiling because I am happy. I came to salute you, and I will continue to salute you for the good work that you have done. 'Your stories are better told by those who were on the other side of the barrel, because they know, they felt it. They are the ones that attested, so be proud of what you were doing. If we are required to do so, we will do it again,' Maphwanya addressed the uniformed troops, with the majority of the soldiers responding: 'Yes sir'. Get your news on the go, click here to join the IOL News WhatsApp channel. 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