Ai 171 flight from Air India, destined for London-Gatwick airport, transported to 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadianthe airline reported. The Indian Civil Aviation Authority indicated that the ship was traveling with two pilots and 10 crew.
“The injured are being transferred to the closest hospitals“Said the airline.” Air India is fully cooperating with the authorities investigating this incident. “
Air India Boeing 787 He issued a relief signal and “crashed just after takeoff In Ahmedabad ”, at 13.39 local time, said the Civil Aviation of India in a statement.
The aircraft was in charge of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, Instructor pilot with 8,200 flight hours.
The agency said that “there were 242 people aboard the apparatus”, which had two pilots and 10 crew.
The civil aviation authority pointed out that the plane It fell “outside the perimeter of the airport.”
The plane crashed from a low altitude, approximately 250 meters, and hit the student residence of the BJ Medical College, in the Meghaninagar area.
Horrifice visuals from the Ahmedabad Medical College Building, where the planet.#Airindia #Ahmedabadnews #Gujarat #Planecrash #Airindia pic.twitter.com/mnn3tp3ayr
– Indiatody (@indiatody) June 12, 2025
Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, described the accident as A “heartbreaking” tragedy for which there are no words.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, said that his thoughts are “with passengers and their families in these painful moments.”
“The images that are arriving from the accident of an plane to London, which transported many British citizens and that He crashed into the Indian city of Ahmedabad, They are devastating, ”he said.
“It seems that there are no survivors” Among the 242 people aboard the plane that crashed this Thursday in Ahmedabad, the police chief of this Indian city told AFP.
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“The device fell in a residential neighborhood, in which there are some offices. The accident has caused even more victims”, Added the Chief of the Police, GS Malik, without giving more details.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski, He offered his condolences this Thursday to the Indian prime minister after having received the “horrible news” of the incident.
“We are in thought with all the relatives and relatives of the Victims in India, the United Kingdom, Portugal and Canada. We share your shock and pain on this tragic day, ”he said on the social network X.
In turn, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, He sent a telegram.
“I ask you to transmit my sincere condolences and My support for relatives and loved ones from the dead, And also the desire for a prompt recovery to all those affected by this catastrophe, ”says the letter, according to Kremlin.
A thick black smoke column
An AFP journalist reported that he saw a thick black smoke column that rose near the airport.
Ahmedabad is the largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat and has a population of eight million people. The airport is in the middle of very populated residential areas.
Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu reported that “Rescue teams are mobilized” And he declared that “everything is possible to ensure that medical assistance and emergency supplies quickly reach the place.”
The president of Air India expressed his condolences to families and informed that An emergency center was arranged and a support team for families looking for information.
India has suffered a series of aerial catastrophes, including a disaster in 1996, when Two aircraft collided in full flight over the capital, New Delhi, causing the death of almost 350 people.
In 2010, an Air India Express plane crashed and caught fire at the Mangalore airport, in the southwest of India, causing the death of 158 of the 166 passengers and crew that were on board.