📰 Incident Overview

On June 12, 2025, Air India Flight AI‑171, a Boeing 787‑8 Dreamliner, took off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 13:38 IST, bound for London Gatwick. Mere seconds into its ascent, the aircraft rapidly descended and crashed into a multi‑storey building (part of the BJ Medical College doctors’ hostel) in Meghani Nagar, near the airport.

‘Catastrophic’ Air India plane crash near Ahmedabad: What we know At least 242 people were on board flight AI171 when it crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport.

An Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane with at least 242 people on board crashed in a densely populated residential area close to an airport on the edge of India’s western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday morning.

Later on Thursday, the local police chief in Ahmedabad said at least 204 bodies had been recovered. Local rescue workers said they had retrieved between 30 and 35 bodies from a building hit by the aircraft, Reuters reported.

Where and when did the plane crash?

The plane crashed in a residential area called Meghani Nagar, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, told The Associated Press.

The city of 7-8 million people is in President Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Modi has directed the Ministry of Civil Aviation to take “all possible action” to assist at the crash site.

Ahmedabad airport has been closed and all flight operations have been suspended until further notice.

There is a large Gujarat population in Great Britain, and the Ahmedabad-London route is a popular one.

According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, the plane’s final signal was received just seconds after takeoff at 1:38pm local time (08:08 GMT). It had reached an altitude of 625 feet (190 metres) before crashing back to the ground outside the airport, close to densely populated residential areas on the outskirts of the city.

The plane issued a mayday alert to air traffic control before all communications from the aircraft ceased.

What do we know about the crash site? Footage shared on social media of the crash site showed debris on fire, with huge plumes of thick, black smoke rising into the sky near the airport.

They also showed people being moved in stretchers and being taken away in ambulances.

India’s CNN News-18 TV channels said the plane crashed on top of the dining area of state-run B.J. Medical College hostel, killing many medical students as well. It showed a visual of a portion of the aircraft perched atop the building.

“The building on which it has crashed is a doctors’ hostel…We have cleared almost 70 percent to 80 percent of the area and will clear the rest soon,” a senior police officer also told reporters.

Local journalist Sunil Vaidya told Al Jazeera: “The crash site is very close to a civil hospital where there is a medical college,” he said. “It is quite possible that students studying there are staying in a hostel nearby.”