Flight carrying 242 people bound for London has crashed in Ahmedabad, India

MUMBAI, India — An Air India flight with 242 passengers and 12 crew bound for London crashed shortly after departure in India’s northwestern city of Ahmedabad today. The Indian health minister, Jagat Prakash Nada, said many people were killed, but offered no further information.

Footage posted by the Press Trust of India showed the plane sinking over a residential quarter and then the sound of a blast, and a ball of fire. The Press Trust shared images of medics rushing casualties on stretchers. The plane crashed just five minutes after taking off, according to Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of the directorate of civil aviation, who spoke to The Associated Press.

It was not clear how many casualties there were from the flight, a Boeing 787 bound for London’s Gatwick Airport. Air India said on X that the flight was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian and seven Portuguese. Multiple videos shared by residents appeared to show charred bodies and body parts at the site of the crash.

Casualties may also include people impacted after the plane, or parts of the plane, smashed into the cafeteria of a hostel for students of the BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad, according to a hospital official who declined to be named because she was not authorized to speak to the media. She said the hospital was taking in casualties. India’s Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) said on X that 50 medical students had been admitted to the hospital, at least four students were missing and at least two were in critical condition.

A doctor at the trauma center where casualties were being treated said so far, 90 people had been bought in. She also requested anonymity because she wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. Reuters reported that at least 30 bodies had been recovered from a building at the site of the plane crash.

The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi called the crash a “tragedy” that had “stunned and saddened us.”

“It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it,” he wrote on X.

Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chairman of the Tata Group that operates Air India, said in a statement that flight AI171 was involved in a “tragic incident.” He said the conglomerate was assisting the emergency response teams and providing care and support to those affected. The airport where the flight departed from has suspended operations.

This is the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, according to the Aviation Safety Network. The aircraft gave a “Mayday” call, signaling an emergency before it crashed. A Boeing spokesman told The Associated Press that it was aware of the reports of the crash and was “working to gather more information.” The 787 was introduced in 2009 and more than 1,000 are operating globally, according to Boeing.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday morning on X that it will be leading a team of U.S. investigators going to India to assist in the crash investigation

The New York Times reported in April 2024 that the Federal Aviation Administration was investigating claims made by a whistleblower – a Boeing engineer – who claimed that sections of the 787 Dreamliner were improperly fastened together and could break apart after thousands of trips. At the time, Boeing told the paper that it had “determined that this is not an immediate safety of flight issue.”

The last major plane crash in India was in 2020, when a Boeing 737 skidded off a hilltop runway, killing 21 people.

The crash adds to Boeing’s woes — its reputation has been battered after two deadly accidents involving its 737 Max 8; one in 2019 when an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed, killing all 149 people aboard, and in October 2018, when a Lion Air flight crashed in the sea near the Indonesian capital Jakarta, killing all 189 passengers onboard.

The crash comes just days ahead of the Paris Air Show, where Boeing is expected to host a large pavilion.