Air India Dreamliner crashes into college hostel, over 265 killed

At least 265 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London crashed moments after taking off from the city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, according to local police officials. The crash is in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, with 242 people on board, which was headed for Gatwick Airport, south of the British capital, had only one survivor after it crashed onto a medical college hostel during lunch hour.

The sole survivor is a British national of Indian origin and is being treated in a hospital, the airline confirmed. The man told Indian media how he had heard a loud noise shortly after Flight AI171 took off.

According to local news reports, 265 bodies have been brought to the hospital. The death toll includes people who were on the ground when the plane crashed.

"We are still verifying the number of dead, including those killed in the building where the plane crashed," Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer said.

The only known surviving passenger was in seat 11A, next to an emergency exit, Chaudhary said, adding that there could be more survivors in hospital.

"Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed," 40-year-old Ramesh Viswashkumar told the Hindustan Times, which showed a boarding pass for seat 11A in that name online.

"It all happened so quickly," he told the paper from his hospital bed. "When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me," he said. "Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital."

He said that his brother, Ajay, was seated in a different row on the plane. "He was traveling with me and I can't find him anymore. Please help me find him," he said.

Ahmedabad police chief G.S. Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground. The dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the main city.

Relatives have been asked to give DNA samples to identify the dead, state health secretary Dhananjay Dwivedi said.

Parts of the plane's fuselage were scattered around the smoldering building into which it crashed. The tail of the plane was stuck on top of the building.

The passengers included 217 adults, 11 children and two infants, a source told Reuters. Air India said 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.

Crash just after take off

CCTV footage showed the plane taking off over a residential area and then disappearing from the screen before a huge fireball could be seen rising into the sky from beyond the houses.

"My sister-in-law was going to London. Within an hour, I got news that the plane had crashed," Poonam Patel, a relative of one of the passengers, told news agency ANI at the government hospital in Ahmedabad.

Ramila, the mother of a student at the medical college, told ANI her son had gone to the hostel for his lunch break when the plane crashed. "My son is safe, and I have spoken to him. He jumped from the second floor, so he suffered some injuries," she said.

According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad Airport, the aircraft departed at 1:39 p.m., and soon made a Mayday call, signaling an emergency.

U.S. aerospace safety consultant Anthony Brickhouse said one problematic sign from videos of the aircraft was that the landing gear was down at a phase of flight when it would typically be up.

"If you didn't know what was happening, you would think that plane was on approach to a runway," Brickhouse said.

Investigation takes time

Indian Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said that a formal investigation has been initiated by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg has cancelled plans to attend next week's Paris Air Show, the industry's biggest event of the year. Before Thursday's crash, Ortberg was heading to Paris having made considerable progress on his efforts to rebuild trust in the company following multiple production and safety crises in recent years.

Now, a team of Boeing experts is ready to go to India to help investigators there, he said.

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the investigation would take time and expressed "deep sorrow" about the incident.

Aircraft engine-maker GE Aerospace said that it would put a team together to go to India and analyze cockpit data, India's CNBC TV18 reported.

The U.S. transportation secretary said the Federal Aviation Administration was working with Boeing and GE in the investigation, and he said that U.S. officials have not seen any immediate safety data that would require halting Boeing 787 flights.

Britain was also working with Indian authorities to establish the facts around the crash and to provide support to those involved, the country's Foreign Office said.

A test for new Boeing leadership

The plane crashed in the city of Ahmedabad is a wide-body airliner and is more than a decade old. It flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014. Since then, it accumulated more than 41,000 flight hours, including 420 hours during 58 flights in May and 165 hours during 21 flights in June, according to Cirium, an aviation data analytics firm, and FlightRadar24, a flight tracking website.

The wide-body 787 planes have had a strong safety record. They were grounded in 2013 due to battery issues, but no one was reported injured.

Before the crash, airline executives had voiced greater confidence in Boeing's rebound in deliveries and in Ortberg's leadership after years of reputational damage for the planemaker. Last month, the Axios Harris poll of 100 recognizable corporate brands by reputation put Boeing at 88th, the same as in 2024.

However, the crash has put Boeing leadership back in crisis mode. Boeing's shares fell five percent in the crash's wake.

The planemaker was deemed responsible for three high-profile accidents involving 737 MAX narrow-body planes in recent years, including two fatal crashes. A January 2024 incident, when a door plug blew off a new plane mid-flight, damaged its reputation and led to the departure of then-CEO Dave Calhoun, as well as the head of commercial planes and its board chair.

Boeing's narrow-body 737 MAX jets were grounded for years after the two fatal crashes and have faced years of scrutiny and production delays.

"Due to the crash, there could be enhanced scrutiny on manufacturing and quality procedures. However, at this time, we do not feel there will be a long-term impact to production," said Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau.

Shares of Spirit AeroSystems, a key supplier, and GE Aerospace, which makes engines for the jet, also fell about two percent each.

Boeing's outstanding debt also sold off modestly after the crash.

(With input from Reuters)