Air India Flight 171

Air India Flight 171 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Air India from Ahmedabad Airport in India to London Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom. On 12 June 2025, at 13:39 IST (08:09 UTC), the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner operating the flight crashed approximately thirty seconds after takeoff into the hostel block of B. J. Medical College in Ahmedabad. Shortly after liftoff, the aircraft began losing altitude while maintaining a wings-level, nose-up attitude. The flight crew issued a mayday call reporting a loss of power and thrust. The impact caused multiple explosions.

The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members; all but 1 passenger were killed. The crash also killed 19 people and injured 67 more on the ground.

According to a preliminary investigation by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, both engines lost thrust after their fuel control switches moved from the RUN to CUTOFF position seconds after takeoff. The cause of the switch movement remains under investigation.

This was the first fatal accident and hull loss involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a wide-body airliner that first flew in 2009 and entered commercial service in 2011.

The aircraft involved in the crash was an 11-year-old Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner registered VT-ANB with serial number 36279.^[1][2] The aircraft was assembled at the Boeing Everett Factory^[3][4] and included fuselage sections made at the Boeing South Carolina facility.^[5] It was delivered to Air India on 28 January 2014.^[3] The aircraft was powered by two General Electric GEnx-1B67 engines.^[6]

Air India began operating routes to London Gatwick in 2023.^[7] At the time of the crash, it operated twelve departures a week, including five to Ahmedabad.^[8]

The flight was carrying 242 people, including 230 passengers—13 of them children, 2 of whom were infants—along with 2 pilots and 10 flight attendants.^[9][10] The passenger manifest included 169 Indian nationals, 53 British, 7 Portuguese, and a Canadian.^[11][12][13]

The flight was commanded by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, who had logged approximately 15,600 flight hours, including nearly 8,600 hours on the Boeing 787. The first officer, Clive Kunder, 32, had around 3,400 flight hours, with over 1,100 hours on the 787. Kunder was the pilot flying, while Sabharwal was the pilot monitoring for the flight.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Flight 171 took off from runway 23 of Ahmedabad Airport at 13:38 IST (08:08 UTC) en route to London Gatwick. According to METAR reports issued around the time of departure, the surface winds at the airport were light, ranging from 3–6 knots (6–11 km/h; 3–7 mph), the visibility was 6 kilometres (3.7 mi; 3.2 nmi), and there were no significant clouds.^[18][19]

The aircraft started its takeoff roll at 08:07:37 UTC.^[14] The aircraft's ADS-B transponder reported a maximum pressure altitude of around 625 feet (191 m) above mean sea level while still over the runway before the signal was lost at 08:08:50 UTC.^[20] The aircraft reached a maximum indicated airspeed of 180 knots.^[14] The flight crew issued a mayday call,^[8] reporting a loss of power and thrust shortly after take-off.^[21] The aircraft was airborne for 32 seconds.^[22][23]

A video recording from a CCTV security camera next to the runway shows the aircraft initially gaining altitude, then gradually descending while appearing to pitch up and, just out of view, crashing around thirty seconds after take-off, followed by a plume of fire and smoke.^[24] Another video of the incident taken by an aviation enthusiast shows the last few seconds before impact.^[25] The crash site was 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi; 0.8 nmi) from the runway.^[22]

The crash resulted in multiple explosions as the aircraft hit a building and slid; they were followed by thick plumes of smoke.^[26][27] The plane crashed into the residential area of the Civil Hospital campus, hitting the doctors' quarters and the students' hostel buildings of the hospital's B. J. Medical College.^[8][28][29] The aircraft's partially intact stabilisers and tail cone came to rest on top of the multi-storey hostel building.^[30]

This was Air India's first fatal crash or hull loss since the bombing of Flight 182 in 1985,^[31] and the first fatal crash and the first hull loss of the Boeing 787 since its introduction in 2011.^[32][33] It was also the deadliest aviation accident in India since the 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision.^[34]

The Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services Department confirmed the deployment of units from various city divisions.^[35] The first call to the control room was received on 13:45 IST. Two firefighter teams were sent immediately from Naroda GIDC, and the "brigade call" was issued. More than 300 firefighters, 60 fire vehicles, and 20 water bowsers were deployed.^[26] Multiple ambulances, including 20 ambulances from the fire department, were rushed to the location.^[36][26] All roads leading to the crash site and surrounding areas were closed to facilitate rescue operations.^[35] Teams and fire vehicles from surrounding fire services including Vadodara, Gandhinagar, ONGC, GIFT City, and Civil Defence were also sent to the scene to render aid.^[26]

The Central Industrial Security Force, responsible for security at Ahmedabad Airport, were among the first responders.^[37] Teams from the Indian Army, Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, National Disaster Response Force, and Western Railways were deployed to assist with rescue and relief efforts, and a military hospital was put on standby.^{[10][38][39][40][41]}

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation deployed more than 150 vehicles, including earthmovers, excavators, trucks, and a roller, to clear debris from the site. The corporation also deployed engineers and health department personnel, and ordered the emergency readiness of the municipal hospitals.^[26] Shortly after the crash, all flight operations at the airport were suspended^[42] before resuming later in the day in a limited capacity.^[43]

The crash killed all but one of the 242 people aboard the aircraft^[44][45] and 19 on the ground.^[46][47] At least 60 were also injured on the ground.^[48] By 13 June, police officials said that six bodies had been released to their families.^[8] Among the casualties was Vijay Rupani, the former Chief Minister of Gujarat (2016–2021),^[49] whose body was identified through DNA identification.^[50] The intense heat of the crash, which had reached an estimated 1,500 °C (2,700 °F), hindered DNA collection and testing.^[50][51] By 28 June 2025, DNA tests had confirmed the identities of all 260 fatalities.^[52][53]

At least 50 medical students from the hostel buildings were hospitalised.^[8] The dean of the college said that "most of the students escaped, but 10 or 12 were trapped in the fire".^[54]

A 40-year-old British citizen sitting in seat 11A next to an emergency exit was the sole survivor of the crash.^[56][55] He said that the section of the aircraft where he was seated detached and came to rest on the ground floor of the hostel, and that he escaped through an opening created by the emergency exit breaking open. He was recorded on video walking away from the crash by himself, and then being led to an ambulance.^[57][58] Doctors reported that he was in a disorientated condition with minor injuries, including burns to his left hand, and was released from hospital after five days.^{[59][57][60][61]} His brother, who had been sitting in a different row, did not survive.^[62]

The crash is under investigation by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).^[63] The United Kingdom's Air Accidents Investigation Branch also dispatched a team of four investigators,^[64] and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sent a "go team" to assist.^[10][36] The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that it "[stood] ready to launch a team immediately" in support of the NTSB.^[65]

On 13 June, about 28 hours after the crash, the first of the aircraft's two enhanced airborne flight recorders, each of which performs the functions of both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, was recovered from a rooftop of the building at the crash site.^[66][67][68] Later that same day, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad retrieved the digital video recorder from the wreckage that stores footage from the aircraft's external and cabin-mounted cameras and is separate from the two certified flight recorders.^[69][70] The second enhanced flight recorder was recovered from the crash site on 16 June, from the crash debris.^[66][71] Both recorders were sent to the AAIB Lab in Delhi for data retrieval on 24 June. The data from the front recorder was successfully downloaded on 25 June.^[66]

India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Air India opened parallel inquiries into the accident.^[72] On 13 June, the DGCA ordered additional pre-departure technical inspections for the airline's Boeing 787 fleet, starting on 15 June.^[8] DGCA also directed Air India to execute additional maintenance and inspections on fuel-parameter monitoring and associated systems, cabin air compressor and associated systems, electronic engine control system test, engine fuel driven actuator-operational test, and oil-system checks for the Boeing 787-8 and 787-9.^[73]

On 8 July, the AAIB published a preliminary report with its initial findings.^[74]

According to the flight data recorder, the aircraft reached takeoff speed at 08:08:33 UTC and lifted off around 08:08:39. At 08:08:42, as the aircraft reached its top recorded air speed of 180 knots (330 km/h; 210 mph), both engines shut down after their respective fuel control switches moved from the RUN to CUTOFF position one after another, one second apart. The engine power levels began to drop immediately. Cockpit voice recordings captured one pilot asking the other why he had cut off the fuel, with the second pilot responding that he had not. Airport CCTV footage showed the automatic deployment of the ram air turbine (RAT) shortly after liftoff. The footage also showed no significant bird activity along the flight path and that the aircraft began losing altitude before crossing the airport perimeter wall.^{[14]: 14–15}

At 08:08:47, with both engines losing power, the RAT deployed and began supplying emergency hydraulic and electric power. At 08:08:52, the fuel switch for engine 1 returned to the RUN position, followed four seconds later by the switch for engine 2. At that point, each engine's full authority digital engine control (FADEC) system automatically attempted to restart the engines. By the end of the flight data recording at 08:09:11, engine 1 had relit and was spooling up, while engine 2 had relit but its core speed continued to fall, with the FADEC introducing additional fuel in an attempt to recover thrust.^[14]: 15

The flight data recorder showed that both throttles had been kept at takeoff thrust until impact. However the thrust levers were found to be in the idle position when recovered. Flaps had been properly set for takeoff at 5°.^[14]: 10

At approximately 08:09:05 UTC, one of the pilots issued a "mayday" distress call. The air traffic controller responded with a request for the aircraft's call sign but received no reply. The aircraft crashed shortly afterward.^[14][75]

The report did not identify any mechanical faults nor recommend safety actions for operators or manufacturers of the 787 or its GEnx engines. The cause of the fuel switch movements remained under investigation as of the report's release.^[76]

According to the preliminary report, the FAA issued Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) NM-18-33 in 2018, warning that fuel switches of a similar type to those in the 787-8 had been installed in 737 aircraft with the locking feature disengaged (the exact nature of this disengagement was not described).^[77] No record of Air India performing the recommended, but not mandated, inspection on the incident aircraft was found. Maintenance records did show that the throttle control module was subsequently replaced twice, in 2019 and 2023, but for reasons unrelated to the fuel cutoff switches. No defects related to the cutoff switches had been reported since 2023.^[14]: 6

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site on 13 June and also visited the hospital where he met the lone survivor from the plane crash and those who had been injured on the ground.^[57] Home minister Amit Shah spoke with the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Bhupendra Patel, following the incident.^[78] Patel stated that officials had been instructed to carry out "immediate rescue and relief operations" and to make arrangements on a "war footing".^[16]

British prime minister Keir Starmer expressed his condolences,^[79] and the UK Foreign Office arranged crisis teams in India and the UK.^[8] At the Trooping the Colour in London on 14 June, there was a one-minute silence and senior royals wore black armbands in remembrance of the victims, at the request of King Charles III.^[80]

Air India chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said that Flight 171 was involved in a "tragic accident" and expressed "deepest condolences" to those affected. He said the airline's focus is on supporting victims and their families, assisting emergency teams, and providing verified updates. An emergency centre and support teams had been activated for those seeking information.^[36] Air India CEO Campbell Wilson stated that "this is a difficult day for all of us at Air India", saying that special teams of caregivers would be mobilised for additional support and adding that the investigations would take time.^[81] He faced criticism for allegedly copying his speech from American Airlines CEO Robert Isom's statement following the crash of American Airlines Flight 5342.^[82] Air India Flight 143, a 787-8 similar to the aircraft involved, flying from Delhi to Paris–CDG with Wilson aboard, returned to Delhi for him to assist the airline with the crisis.^[83] On 3 July, it was reported that Air India pilots had repeated the Flight 171 take-off in a flight simulator. The pilots attempted to simulate electrical failures that could cause a dual-engine flame-out. They also found that having the landing gear deployed and the wing flaps retracted did not alone cause the simulator to crash.^[84][85][86]

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg cancelled his plans to attend the Paris Air Show and offered his condolences to the victims.^[56][87] Ortberg said he would also send a team of experts to aid the investigators at the crash site.^[56] Boeing said it was aware of the initial reports and was assessing information.^[88] The company's stock futures prices sank almost 9% following the crash.^[10] GE Aerospace, which manufactured the aircraft's engines, said it would send a team to India and analyse cockpit data.^[56]

On the day of the crash, Tata Group, the parent company of Air India, announced ₹10 million (US$120,000) compensation per person to the families of the passengers who died, along with covering the medical expenses of the injured.^[89][90][91] Under the Montreal Convention, Air India is liable to pay around ₹15 million (US$180,000) to the kin of each deceased passenger.^[92][93] The Tata group later extended its ₹10 million (US$120,000) compensation to the on-ground victims as well,^[94] following a request by the Indian Medical Association to compensate the medical students killed or injured,^[91] and also announced plans to assist in the rebuilding of the destroyed B. J. Medical College building.^[95] Tata Group suspended four Air India SATS officers for partying shortly after the crash.^[96]

Air India retired flight number AI171 and its reciprocal AI172, and began to refer to the Ahmedabad-London Gatwick route as AI159 and AI160 respectively.^[97][98] Air India subsidiary Air India Express also retired the flight number IX171 for similar reasons.^[97]

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• Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network