Air India Boeing 787-8 Crashes After Takeoff

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 a statement Boeing said: “We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected.”

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 slowly 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. In the footage the landing gear appears to still be down while the flaps look to be retracted.

Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport has a single Runway 5/23. Airport plans show that there is no taxiway on either side of Runway 23 beyond where it is met by taxiway D at around the halfway point. This requires the aircraft to backtrack to the end, which the aircraft did according to Flightradar24 data. The runway is 3,500 m (11,500 ft.) long and is 45 m wide.

Flightradar24 said it received the last signal from the aircraft at 08:08:51 UTC, only seconds after takeoff.

India's Civil Aviation 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 mobilized, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site.”

The airport remains closed until further notice.

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 hr. 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-hr. flight from Delhi to Ahmedabad (AI 423) the morning before it departed as AI 171. It had arrived from Paris at 1.34 a.m. on June 12. 

Air India operates 34 Boeing 787s, according to Fleet Discovery. It has a further 20 on firm order. 

The airline has not had a fatal accident since 1985 when one of its Boeing 747s operating Flight AI 182 was destroyed by a bomb explosion in mid-flight. At the time, 329 people were killed. 

Fleet Discovery shows there are 1,072 787s in service globally. Airlines and lessors have placed orders for an additional 974.