An Air India Passenger Plane ‘Collision’ at Ahmedabad, India: Rescue Missions and Medical Aid are Trying

A passenger plane carrying 242 people crashed in western India on Thursday, according to the airline’s social media account. The Air India plane had more than 220 people on it when it crashed. Some of the Indians, British and Portuguese are a Canadian. There was no immediate information about survivors.

Smoke billowing from the crash site of a plane that crashed near the airport in the city of Ahmedabad was seen on TV.

India’s Civil Aviation Minister 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 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner-Lensing Flight Alight: A Tribute to a Boeing Engineer Whose Accidents Haven’t Been Detected?

The Boeing 787-8 is the smallest and oldest version of the Dreamliner series, able to carry up to 248 passengers, according to the aircraft maker. The model’s long range and fuel efficiency make it popular with airlines. The versions differ in length, but the same wingspans for all of them, Boeing says.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a claim made by a Boeing engineer that sections of the plane’s structure were not fastened together as ordered and could break down mid-flight.

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. Many families of the crash victims were opposed to the deal which is still being approved by a judge.

The airplane manufacturer has faced other prominent safety issues. 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 would redesign the panels to better detect any malfunctions.

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.

Surveillance and witness videos from the scene suggest the plane may have been in the air for only around 30 seconds struggling to gain altitude before it descended and crashed.

The doctor who works at the trauma center said that so far 90 people had been bought in. She also requested anonymity because she wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. More than 30 bodies were recovered from a building at the site of the plane crash.

According to a hospital official who didn’t want to be named because she was not authorized to speak to the media, some people may have been impacted by the crash of the plane. The hospital is taking casualties at the moment.

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 helping the emergency response teams and providing support to those who were affected. The airport where the flight departed has stopped operating.

There have also been concerns about the plane’s carbon fiber fuselage. Awhistleblower said last year that there were problems with how parts of the plane were fastened together. The retired Boeing engineer warned that production cuts could shorten the lives of the plane and cause it to fall apart in flight.

But Boeing pushed back on those allegations. Engineering executives at the company defended the integrity of the 787’s fuselage, saying they had conducted extensive testing with no findings of fatigue in the composite fuselage.

Federal regulators temporarily ground the entire fleet of the jets after two of them caught fire in the same year, with smoldering fires in the cargo hold. Boeing had to come up with a box to surround the batteries to prevent fires from spreading.

Air India’s First VT-ANB Jet, Flight 171, Completed by Air India on Jan. 28, 2014, Accompanied by 30 Minutes of Video

The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday morning via  X that the agency will lead a team of U.S. investigators to assist in the crash investigation.

Aviation experts noted that the wing flaps did not appear to have been extended. Those flaps are normally extended during takeoff to help increase lift and lower stall speed.

“Maybe the engines weren’t putting out as much power they needed to be giving out,” Guzzetti said, “although I don’t see any smoke or flames coming from the engines.” It could be a computer programming issue.

In 1960, Air India received its first Boeing jet, a 707-437, from Boeing, according to India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Flight 171 used the full length of Runway 23 at Ahmedabad, returning to the end of the runway before beginning its take off roll, according to Flightradar 24.

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 jet has accumulated more than four thousand hours of flying time and almost 8,000 takeoffs and landings, which is the average for an aircraft of its age.

Flight 171 was a 787-8, registered as VT-ANB. The aircraft was manufactured in Seattle, Wash., and delivered to Air India on Jan. 28, 2014, according to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm.

“It just appears to me that the airplane is unable to climb,” former National Transportation Safety Board investigator Jeff Guzzetti told NPR, reacting to videos that apparently captured the moments before the crash. “It was able to take off from the runway and get up to 500 feet, but it just wasn’t able to climb after that.”