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Boeing Dreamliner crashed 5 minutes after takeoff in India Thursday afternoon. Flight was scheduled to reach at London’s Gatwick Airport Thursday night. 242 passengers and crew aboard. A minimum of one Canadian citizen, 53 U.Ok. residents on aircraft. Modi, Starmer, Air India categorical condolences to affected households.
Air India says its London-bound flight that crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport Thursday included individuals from India, Britain, Portugal and Canada.
The airline mentioned the flight was carrying 242 passengers and crew total. Indian officers had beforehand mentioned 244 had been on board.
Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director basic of the directorate of civil aviation, informed The Related Press that Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8, crashed right into a residential space referred to as Meghani Nagar 5 minutes after taking off at 1:38 p.m. native time.
India’s Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu posted on X that rescue groups have been mobilized, and all efforts are being made to make sure medical support and aid help on the web site.
Individuals work close to the location of an airplane that crashed in India’s northwestern metropolis of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, Thursday, June12, 2025. (Ajit Solanki/The Related Press)
The flight was sure for London’s Gatwick, the U.Ok. airport confirmed.
Air India in a social media submit that along with 169 Indian nationals, there have been 53 British residents, seven on board from Portugal and one Canadian citizen.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned he was in touch with all of India’s ministers charged with responding to the crash.
“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has shocked and saddened us,” mentioned Modi. “It’s heartbreaking past phrases. On this unhappy hour, my ideas are with everybody affected by it.”
1st Dreamliner crash
Air India’s chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, mentioned in the meanwhile “our major focus is on supporting all of the affected individuals and their households.”
He mentioned on X that the airline had arrange an emergency centre and help staff for households in search of details about those that had been on the flight. “Our ideas and deepest condolences are with the households and family members of all these affected by this devastating occasion,” he mentioned.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer referred to as the scenes in India “devastating” and mentioned he was “being up to date because the scenario develops, and my ideas are with the passengers and their households at this deeply distressing time.”
The 787 Dreamliner is a widebody, twin-engined aircraft. That is the primary crash ever of a Boeing 787 plane, in line with the Aviation Security Community database.
The plane was launched in 2009 and greater than 1,000 have been delivered to dozens of airways, in line with the flightradar24 web site. American Airways has the most important Dreamliner fleet, whereas Air Canada additionally has dozens in operation.
Individuals watch smoke rising after an airplane crashed in Ahmedabad, Gujarat state on Thursday. It’s the main aircraft crash in India in 5 years. (Submitted by Mohan Nakum/The Related Press)
The crash happens amid studies that the U.S. Justice Division reached a deal just lately with Boeing that might enable the airplane big to keep away from prison prosecution for allegedly deceptive American regulators concerning the 737 Max jetliner earlier than two crashes which killed 346 individuals in 2018 and 2019.
These Boeing crashes occurred 5 months aside in Indonesia and in Ethiopia, with 18 Canadian residents among the many useless within the Ethiopian incident.
Boeing mentioned in a short assertion: “We’re conscious of preliminary studies and are working to assemble extra data.”
Shares of Boeing Co. tumbled almost 9 per cent earlier than buying and selling opened within the U.S.
The final main aircraft crash in India occurred in 2020 when an Air India Specific Boeing 737 skidded off a runway within the southern metropolis of Kozhikode, killing 18 individuals.
