Air India flight AI171 with service from Ahmedabad (AMB) to London Gatwick (LGW) crashed just after takeoff from Ahmedabad. Both the airline and police have confirmed the incident.
Air India’s statement as of 5:20am EST: “Flight AI171, operating Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, was involved in an incident today, 12 June 2025. At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates at the earliest.”
The aircraft involved is VT-ANB, an 11-year-old Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. This would be the first hull loss incident involving any variant of the 787, and the first incident involving a fatality for the aircraft type.
Meanwhile, this is the second hull loss incident involving a composite widebody aircraft. The first was a crash involving Japan Airlines flight JL516 at Tokyo Haneda Airport back in January 2024. That flight was operated by an Airbus A350-900.
Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, director general of the directorate of civil aviation, tells AP that flight AI171 was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew, for a total of 242 souls (an official said 244 earlier). Air India says that 169 Indian nationals and 53 British nationals were onboard, in addition to 7 Portuguese nationals. Just one person onboard survived.
Flights in and out of Ahmedabad airport have resumed at this time.
Flightradar24 data doesn’t show much; it took off from runway 23 in a southwest direction, and data cuts off just after takeoff.
DGCA, India’s aviation regulator, said that the aircraft gave a MAYDAY call to ATC right after takeoff, but there was no response to ATC after this call.
First-hand videos show the aircraft descending and blowing up into flames as it impacted the ground.
Featured image by Rahul Sapra, Shutterstock.
