Boeing 787 en route to London from India crashes after takeoff; 242 aboard

At approximately 1:38 p.m. on June 12, an Air India plane carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members crashed immediately after taking off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

As on-the-ground rescue missions and investigations continue, early reports show that at least 30 bodies were recovered at the scene of the crash, while over a hundred were trapped inside the aircraft and feared dead. The aircraft involved was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner  (BA)  that Air India uses for some of its international flights.

By the late afternoon of June 12, the Ahmedabad police commissioner told the Associated Press that there appeared to be no survivors.

Indian President Narendra Modi called the crash "a tragedy beyond words." India's Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu issued a statement saying that he is "personally monitoring the situation and directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action."

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Early details of Boeing 787 crash: harrowing scenes, multiple deaths

Ahmedabad Airport (AMD), which serves as a gateway to the state of Gujarat and the western part of the country in general, suspended all flights before resuming limited operations a few hours after the crash. 

Photos from the crash captured harrowing scenes of the Dreamliner's tail poking out of a building whose side it partially demolished by the impact. Witnesses were seen rushing to a plume of black smoke spreading throughout the site that firefighters worked to put out.

Flight AI-171 crashed into a hostel for doctors studying and working in the area. Several hospitals in and around Ahmedabad were placed on "high alert" as rescue missions continued to look for bodies. 

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While the Boeing 737 Max model is often associated with two high-profile crashes that took place in 2018 and 2019, the 787-8 Dreamliner model had a spotless safety record; this marks the first recorded crash of the widebody airliner.

Signal with air traffic control was lost at 625 feet and just a minute after takeoff. The last contact with the ground occurred when one of the pilots issued a mayday call.

Aviation experts speculated that the crash may have been caused by an issue in the propulsion system potentially conflated by an environmental factor like a bird strike.

'Just sank down and impacted the ground in a fireball'

"It just sank down and impacted the ground in a fireball," aviation analyst Geoffrey Thomas said to CNN while adding that nothing about the flight's takeoff suggested that it "seem[ed] to be in distress."

Cirium data shows that the aircraft had over 41,000 hours of flying time and nearly 8,000 takeoffs and landings since it was delivered to Air India in 2014. There are currently 1,148 Boeing 787 models in service around the world.

The passengers aboard included 169 Indian citizens, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian citizen. Embassies and heads of state immediately began issuing statements to support the relatives of the victims.

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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer issued a statement saying that the "scenes emerging of a London-bound plane carrying many British nationals crashing in the Indian city of Ahmedabad are devastating."

London's Gatwick Airport opened a reception and center and dedicated phone line (020 7008 5000) for anyone trying to obtain information about relatives.

Boeing, whose shares sank by more than 8% in pre-market trading upon the news, also issued a statement saying that it was "ready to support" Air India in investigating the causes of the crash.

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