Air India Boeing 787-8 Crashes After Takeoff

File image of Air India 787-8 registered VT-ANB.
Credit: Uwe Deffner/Alamy Stock Photo

An Air India Boeing 787-8 crashed into a residential area shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad Airport, India, on June 12.

The crash is the first fatal accident of any 787 since the type entered service in 2011 with All Nippon Airways.

Pictures from the site show a large, dark plume of smoke over the Meghaninagar neighborhood and the tail of the aircraft protruding from a building.

Air India confirmed in a statement that Flight AI 171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick “was involved in an accident today after take-off.” There were 242 people on board the aircraft, including two pilots and 10 cabin crew, a statement from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said. Air India subsequently said that “injured are being taken to the nearest hospitals.” The airline said the flight was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals.

The aircraft, registered VT-ANB, took off at 1:39 p.m. local time from runway 23. The pilots issued a mayday call to air traffic control, “but thereafter no response was given by the aircraft to the calls made by ATC,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

In an initial statement Boeing said, “We are aware of initial reports and are working to gather more information.”

Flightradar 24 said initial ADS-B data shows that the aircraft reached a maximum barometric altitude of 625 ft.—with the airport altitude at about 200 ft.—and then started to descend with a vertical speed of -475 ft. per minute.

Video posted on social media show the aircraft failing to gain positive rate of climb after takeoff, then losing altitude at a high angle of attack and crashing. Flightradar24 said it received the last signal from the aircraft at 08:08:51 UTC, only seconds after takeoff.

Union Civil Minister Ram Mohan Naidu wrote on X that he is “shocked and devastated to learn about the flight crash in Ahmedabad. We are on the highest alert. I am personally monitoring the situation and have directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action. Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site.”

Aviation Week Network’s Fleet Discovery shows VT-ANB was ordered by Air India in 2005 and rolled out in 2010 but delivered only four years later. It is powered by GEnx-1B67 engines. The aircraft has flown 39,450 hours and close to 7,400 cycles.

According to Flightradar24 data, the aircraft has been in routine long-haul rosters over the past few weeks. It had performed a 1.09 hour flight from Delhi to Ahmedabad (AI423) the morning before it departed as AI171. It had arrived from Paris at 1.34 a.m. on June 12.