The Ahmedabad incident of July 2023: Boeing’s Dreamliner, a long-haul airliner, faces a new litigation, according to an official
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 said many people were killed but gave no further information.
Visuals on local television channels showed smoke billowing from the crash site near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city with a population of more than 5 million.
India’s Civil Aviation Minister is Ram Mohan. Naidu Kinjarapu posted on X that rescue teams have been mobilized, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support at the site.
The plane involved in Thursday’s crash was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It has never been involved in accidents before, and is used on long-haul flights. However, according to India’s aviation watchdog, in August 2023, an Indian Air 787 Dreamliner was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff at Mumbai airport.
The crash came as Boeing was going through a years long legal battle over two deadly crashes of the Max plane in the last year. The company reached a deal with the Justice Department last month, which would spare the company from taking criminal responsibility for the crashes.
As part of the deal, Boeing would still have to admit to obstructing federal oversight, pay a fine, contribute to a fund for the families of the victims and invest in safety and quality programs. The deal, which must still be approved by a judge, was opposed by many of the families of the crash victims.
Other prominent safety issues have been faced by the airplane manufacturer. In January 2024, a hole blew open on a Boeing 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight, exposing passengers to forceful winds. Boeing told regulators in August of that year it was going to redesign the panels.
The crash of Air India’s Dreamliner 787: a “turnaround year” in the management of the airline giant after the first flight
Kelly Ortberg, the company’s chief executive, described 2025 as “our turnaround year” in a message to employees in April, when the company released better-than-expected quarterly financial results.
It’s too early to figure out what caused the crash. Aviation experts say they were able to draw some information from the footage of the plane’s brief flight and point out some questions investigators will likely explore.
Another 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.
Casualties may also include people impacted after the plane, or parts of the plane, smashed into the cafeteria of a hostel for male 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 that the hospital was taking in casualties right now.
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.” The conglomerate was assisting the emergency responders and providing care for those impacted. The airport where the flight departed from has now suspended operations.
According to a report in the New York Times, the FAA was investigating claims made by a Boeing engineer who stated that parts of the Dreamliner could break apart after tens of thousands of trips. At the time, Boeing told the Times that they had “determined that this is not an immediate safety of flight issue.”
But Boeing pushed back on those allegations. The company defended the integrity of the plane’s fuselage after extensive testing showed no signs of fatigue.
The world’s entire fleet of the 787 was temporarily grounded after smoldering fires in the cargo hold were caused by the batteries catching fire. Boeing had to craft a workaround and created a metal box to surround the batteries to prevent fires from spreading.
Flight of a 787-8, registered as VT-ANB, from Ahmedabad to Dubai, according to the National Transportation Safety Board
A team of U.S investigators will assist in the crash investigation according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The wing flaps on the plane did not appear to have been extended. Those flaps are normally extended during takeoff to help increase lift and lower stall speed.
It was possible that the engines were not putting out the amount of power needed to be put out, according to Guzzetti. So it could be just a computer programming issue with the engines.”
Boeing and Air India have a long-standing relationship, with the airline taking delivery of its first Boeing jet, a 707-437, in 1960, according to India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation.
After taking off from Ahmedabad early Thursday afternoon, Flight 171 used the entire length of the runway, which included the end, Flightradar 24 said.
In the past week alone, the airliner had completed at least 11 international trips, with destinations ranging from Paris and Frankfurt to Melbourne and Tokyo, according to the tracking site Flightradar 24.
The 11-year-old jet had accumulated more than 41,000 hours of flying time, and almost 8,000 takeoffs and landings, which is average for an aircraft of its age, according to Cirium.
Flight 171 was a 787-8, registered as VT-ANB. The aircraft was manufactured in Seattle, and delivered to Air India the 28th of January, according to data from the aviation firm.
Jeff Guzzetti told NPR that the videos seem to indicate the airplane is unable to climb, a comment that was shared by other former safety board investigators. It was able to fly off from the runway and get up to 500 feet but it wasn’t allowed to climb after that.
Source: An Air India crash in India is a time bomb, and what is waiting to explode in a “time bomb,” says an aviation safety expert
The tragedy comes amid India’s ambitions to be a global transportation hub, and as the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi builds airports across regional centers at breakneck speed. News On Air quoted data from the Official Airline Guide, a global travel data service, which said India was the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market.
The safety culture is lacking even as the industry expands, according to an aviation safety expert. Singh said the relationship with the regulators was the main issue. “There’s a lack of trust.”
Singh said that safety personnel were not surprised because they were expecting something big to happen. There are always small incidents, big incidents, and a big accident that precede something that does not happen out of the blue.
He referred to a plane crash in India in 2020, when a plane skidded off a runway, killing 21 people, and accidents at flight schools. “Then suddenly, you have this,” he said.
Another aviation safety expert, Mohan Ranganathan, told NPR that many of India’s airports did not comply with safety standards to ensure there are no large obstacles near airports. The plane crashed into the building seconds after taking off. A tall building just 300 meters from the compound wall may be a serious violation.
Ranganathan accused India’s aviation watchdog of giving “licenses without proper checking, and the [government run] airport authority keeps violating, because India has one of the weakest judiciaries as far as aviation safety is concerned. They’ll never give a verdict against the government agencies.”
Nothing will happen if this doesn’t wake them up. “Mumbai is a time bomb that is waiting to explode because of its densely populated informal settlements and port megacity,” he said.
Source: Indian authorities begin investigating Air India crash in which 1 passenger survived
The Delhi-based Air India investigation of an Air India plane crash into a medical college and burst into flames: A single man’s life in the city of temples
The civil aviation authority, the federal aviation minister, Air India and its corporate owners were not contacted byNPR for their comment on the allegations.
Chandrasekaran said the company took “its responsibility to society seriously, and that includes being open about what occurred yesterday.” The group said it would provide $100,000 to the families of each victim, and that it would cover medical care for the wounded.
The people of Gujarat, which is the capital of the state and is also known as the city of temples, have long sought their fortune abroad, and it was obvious in the roster of victims who had been on the flight: a man who surprised his father with a visit over the Muslim holiday A single mother is working as a nurse in the U.K.
One of the country’s worst aviation accidents in decades is being investigated by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau with assistance from US and British investigators. The recorder of the plane’s flight was recovered from a rooftop at the crash site. This is a very important step in the investigation. The government’s Civil Aviation Minister posted Friday on X that this will aid the enquiry into the incident.
The lone survivor of the Air India flight that crashed into a medical college and burst into flames after leaving the airport in Gujarat, was the passenger in seat 11A.
The 40-year-old British citizen was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries after he walked out of the crash site. In footage shared by local media, he was seen bloodied, dazed and clutching his mobile phone.
He told The Hindu that he had just walked out. He told media that after the plane crashed, he pushed aside the emergency exit door. “I can’t explain, it’s a miracle, everything.” He had been traveling with his brother, who was a few seats away and was killed.