Gatwick-bound passenger flight with hundreds on board crashes in India

A plane bound for Gatwick airport has crashed shortly after take off in India with hundreds of people on board.

The Air India flight was departing from Ahmedabad airport, with 244 people were onboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Videos posted on social media show a large explosion as the plane crashes in a residential area.

Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, director general of India’s directorate of civil aviation, told the Associated Press the crash happened in the Meghani Nagar area at 1.38pm local time (9.08am BST).

Mr Kidwai said there were 232 passengers and 12 crew members onboard.

Emergency teams have been activated at Ahmedabad airport.

This is the first crash involving a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.

A spokesperson for Air India said: “Flight AI171, operating Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, was involved in an incident today, 12 June 2025.

“At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates at the earliest.”

Flight tracking website Flightradar24 posted on social media platform X: “We are following reports of a crash of Air India flight #AI171 from Ahmedabad to London.

“We received the last signal from the aircraft at 08:08:51 UTC (shortly before 9.09am BST), just seconds after take off.

“The aircraft involved is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with registration VT-ANB.”

It added that the signal from the aircraft was lost “less than a minute after take-off”.

Published: 12/06/2025 by Radio NewsHub