An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed roughly a mile from the runway after lifting off from Ahmedabad Airport in India on Thursday. There were 230 passengers and 12 crew members onboard when the aircraft plummeted into the dining hall of a nearby medical college. The crash killed over 200, including at least five students on the ground. It’s the first fatal crash of a Boeing 787 in its 14 years of revenue service.
When the crash happened, Air India Flight 171 was beginning a nine and a half hour flight from western India to London Gatwick Airport. A video of the crash verified by the New York Times showed the Boeing 787 descending over a populated area, disappearing behind several buildings before exploding in a massive fireball. The plane’s tail ended up coming to rest on a rooftop. The emergency response was as effective as one could hope for and the blaze in the aftermath was quickly extinguished.
There are conflicting reports on the fate of those onboard. Ahmedabad’s police commissioner told the AP that there appeared to be no survivors. However, India’s flag carrier stated that people onboard did survive the fiery impact. Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said in a video statement, “The injured passengers have been taken by local authorities to the nearest hospital.”
There will be a long wait before the chase’s cause was determined
The passengers onboard reflected the nature of it being a long-haul international flight. Air India confirmed 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, 7 Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national were on the flight. Tata Group, Air India’s owner, has already promised $116,868 each to families of those killed in the crash. The airline announced that two flights are being organized to fly the next of kin to Ahmedabad from the country’s two largest cities, Delhi and Mumbai.
There will be a long wait before it’s clear what caused the crash, but the incident immediately conjured memories of the Boeing 737 Max’s two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. The pair of crashes killed 346 people. The American aviation giant is still dealing with the repercussions of the crashes, which were blamed on the aircraft’s MCAS stabilization feature. Boeing has misled regulators about how much training pilots needed to operate the new plane. The Boeing 787 has faced scrutiny on its own last year for skipping required inspections on some aircraft produced.
