Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
More than 240 people died when an Air India flight to London crashed in Ahmedabad shortly after take-off on Thursday, in the worst aviation disaster in more than a decade.
The airline said 242 people were on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. Almost all the passengers and crew were believed dead, with additional fatalities on the ground. A single passenger survived, walking away from the wreckage, and was taken to a hospital for treatment.
The crash comes after a series of accidents involving Boeing aircraft and continued questions over the US aerospace company’s safety record. Boeing’s shares had fallen 5 per cent in New York by Thursday afternoon.
Air India said those on board Flight 171 that was bound for London’s Gatwick airport included 169 Indian nationals, as well as 53 British citizens, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. There were also 10 cabin crew and two pilots. The sole survivor was British, according to a local official.
The Dreamliner was more than 10 years old, according to Flightradar24, which said that after reaching an altitude of 625 feet, the aircraft began to descend with a vertical speed of 475 feet per minute.
The tracking service added that the passenger jet’s signal was lost at 1.38pm local time, moments after its departure.
The Indian aviation regulator said the Dreamliner made a mayday call to air traffic control “but thereafter no response was given by the aircraft to the calls made by ATC”.
Rohan Krishnan, head of the Indian doctors’ association Faima, said the flight crashed into Ahmedabad’s BJ Medical College, adding that some students had been taken to hospital.
The crash is likely to be the deadliest since 2014, when Russia-backed forces in Ukraine shot down a Malaysia Airlines flight en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people on board.
John Strickland, an aviation consultant, said Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner had a “good in-service safety record” since it started flying in 2011.
It is the first time a 787 has crashed, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. Last year Boeing rejected allegations about the aircraft’s structural integrity from a longtime in-house engineer, saying they had been rigorously examined.
But the crash follows a series of safety crises involving other Boeing aircraft. The company is trying to rebuild trust after two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jet in 2018 and 2019, which led to the departure of its then chief executive Dennis Muilenburg.
The mid-air blowout of a door plug on a 737 Max-9 jet operated by Alaska Airlines in January 2024 triggered another clear-out of top management amid concerns over the quality of Boeing’s manufacturing.
Kelly Ortberg, who became Boeing chief executive last August, has sought to stabilise the company’s production and improve its quality control processes, as well as shore up its balance sheet.
Ortberg said he had spoken to Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Air India’s chair, to “offer our full support”, and that a Boeing team was ready to assist an investigation led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected in Ahmedabad,” he added.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words.”
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wrote on X: “The scenes emerging of a London-bound plane carrying many British nationals crashing in the Indian city of Ahmedabad are devastating.”
Chandrasekaran, also chair of Tata, which took over Air India from state control in 2022, said: “With profound sorrow I confirm that Air India Flight 171 operating Ahmedabad London Gatwick was involved in a tragic accident today.”
Campbell Wilson, Air India’s chief executive, was on a flight heading for France to attend the Paris air show on Thursday but it diverted back to New Delhi, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Flight trackers showed an Air India Boeing 787-8 that was flying to Paris suddenly returned to the Indian capital soon after the crash in Ahmedabad.
Wilson later put out a statement expressing “deep sorrow” about the tragedy, and saying investigations “will take time”.
As part of Tata’s plans to modernise Air India, the airline in 2023 agreed a deal with Boeing and Airbus to buy 470 new aircraft, one of the largest orders in aviation history.
Air India had faced the “challenges of decades of state ownership and poor management”, said Strickland.
However, he said Tata had brought in experienced management and the carrier “had begun to move in the right direction both operationally and commercially”.
The US National Transportation Safety Board said it would lead a team of US investigators going to India to help in the investigation. UK investigators are also travelling to the site.
