Air India flight 171
- Date:
- June 12, 2025
News •
Air India flight 171, flight of a passenger airliner that crashed on June 12, 2025, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, claiming the lives of 241 of the 242 people on board, and more than two dozen people on the ground.
Headed for London’s Gatwick Airport, the flight reportedly lost altitude moments after taking off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, and after a brief mayday call from the cockpit, crashed into a medical college hostel nearby, causing an explosion. Air India, the flag carrier of India, confirmed that all but one person on board had died. Besides 12 crew members, the passengers on board included 169 Indians, 53 Britons, 7 Portuguese nationals, and 1 Canadian national. The sole survivor of the crash was a British national of Indian origin. More than two dozen deaths and several injuries on the ground were also reported at the crash site.
Just one passenger survived the fatal crash of flight 171. He was reportedly seated in 11A and was seen walking away from the crash site moments after the plane blew up in smoke.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) of India initiated a technical investigation into the cause of the crash, aided by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), a U.S. body, and the United Kingdom’s air accidents investigation branch. The black boxes and the cockpit voice recorder were retrieved from the wreckage within days of the crash but the formal report on the crash may take several months to come. A high-level committee was also set up by the Indian government to examine the causes behind the deadly crash and to discuss the formulation of standard operating procedures to prevent future crashes. A number of Air India flights were canceled in the days following the crash, and the airline said it would reduce international flights on widebody aircraft by 15 percent for a few weeks, partly owing to heightened safety checks of its Boeing fleet, as ordered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India’s air safety regulator.
A flight’s black box is not black—it is typically painted a bright orange for ease in recovery after an accident.
The June 2025 accident is the first fatal crash involving a Boeing 787, though a number of safety issues related to the aircraft had been previously reported worldwide. The incident was also Air India’s first crash since the Tata Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, acquired the airline in 2022. The parent firm said it would pay 1 crore Indian rupees (about $115,000 at 2025 rates) as compensation to the families of those who died in the crash, including victims on the ground; the final payout will be governed by international convention and Indian law.