A Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner of the Air India company, ensuring the connection between Ahmedabad (north-west of India) and London, crashed shortly after taking off on Thursday, June 12, 2025, causing the death of almost all of the 242 people on board. The accident also caused heavy soil losses to the ground, bringing the total assessment to more than 290 people dead, according to local authorities. A single passenger survived.
The drama occurred a few minutes after the departure of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, one of the busiest in the country. The plane, which had taken off at 1:39 p.m. local time, lost altitude abruptly and crashed into a residential area near the slopes. The emergency services were quickly deployed, supported by military personnel. The research operations made it possible to find 204 bodies and to take charge of 41 injured on the scene, mostly victims of the collapse of the buildings affected by the impact.
Only survivor: a British of Indian origin
Among the 242 people on board – 169 Indians, 53 British, 7 Portuguese, a Canadian, as well as the 12 crew members – a single passenger survived: Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40 -year -old, British national, who occupied the 11A seat. Hospitalized in Ahmedabad, he suffers from injury to the chest, eyes and feet.
In a testimony relayed by the Indian press, he describes a horror scene: “Thirty seconds after takeoff, a great noise sounded, then the plane crashed. Everything happened so quickly. He claims to have found his senses in the middle of debris and bodies, before being rescued and taken to the hospital. He was in India to visit his family and had to go home to London. His brother, also present on the flight, is always missing.
Blurred circumstances and international investigation
At this point, the exact causes of the accident are not known. The Indian civil aviation regulator indicated that the device won shortly after its flight, without loss of visible control or apparent sign of technical failure (smoke or explosion). However, the crew had launched a distress call before contact was definitively lost.
This is the first crash involving this model of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner since its commissioning in 2011. Boeing declared “working on information collection” and addressed its condolences to the families of the victims. The announcement of the accident caused a drop of more than 4 % of the American manufacturer’s action at the opening of Wall Street.
Teams of British and American investigatives were dispatched to the site to assist their Indian counterparts in the investigations, in accordance with the protocols of the International Civil Aviation Organization (OACI).
Support for families of the victims
The Tata group, the main Air India shareholder, announced that it will cover the medical costs of the injured and pay compensation of 10 million rupees (around 100,900 euros) to each bereaved family. “It is with deep sadness that I confirm the involvement of the AI 171 flight in this tragic accident,” said company CEO Natarajan Chandrasekaran, on social networks.
Pending the official conclusions of the investigation, the authorities suspended traffic at Ahmedabad airport. The country is in shock in the face of this disaster which is among the deadliest in the history of Indian civil aviation.
