Black box found at site of Air India plane crash that killed 265

Investigators have made a major discovery after a London-bound passenger jet ploughed into a residential area of India’s Ahmedabad city, killing at least 265.

India’s aviation authorities have recovered one of the two black boxes from the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, a day after it crashed killing at least 265 people.

The “Directorate General of Civil Aviation team have recovered one black box from the crash site”, senior state police said, with India’s Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu saying it would “significantly aid” investigations.

A black-box recorder captures flight data and cockpit audio and is critical in helping investigators determine the cause of an aircraft accident.

The second black box has also been found according to a report in The Independent, however this has not been verified.

A team of experts from Boeing are en route to Ahmedabad to assist the Indian team investigating the crash. A team from engine supplier GE Aerospace, whose engines were powering the Dreamliner, as well as officials from the UK and the US will also be involved.

Air India will carry out “additional maintenance actions” on its fleet of Boeing 787-8/9 Dreamliners fitted with GEnx engines following directions from India’s aviation regulator.

Sole survivor speaks

Air India Flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was carrying 242 passengers when it crashed and exploded into flames shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in India’s west on Thursday, Reuters reported, citing local officials.

The sole surviving passenger has said that an opening in the fuselage, the main body of the aircraft, allowed him to escape.

“I managed to unbuckle myself, used my leg to push through that opening, and crawled out,” British man Vishwashkumar Ramesh, told Indian state media DD News.

On Friday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Kanan Desai said that 265 bodies had been counted so far, suggesting that at least 24 people were killed on the ground.

But the toll could rise further as more body parts are recovered.

Among those killed include passengers on the flight, and people who were inside the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel when the plane crashed into it.

The flight was headed to London Gatwick Airport and there were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian on-board, according to the airline.

Mr Ramesh was seated in 11A, the window seat by the emergency exit above the wing, and said that his section of the plane was not in direct contact with the building that the aircraft crashed into, a medical college hostel.

“When the door broke and I saw there was some space, I tried to get out of there and I did,” he said.

“No one could have got out from the opposite side, which was towards the wall, because it crashed there.”

Vishwashkumar Ramesh walked away from the crash alive. Picture: Supplied

Mr Ramesh’s family said they were ‘speechless’ he survived. Picture: Supplied

Mr Ramesh was taken to hospital with ‘some injuries to his face’, another relative said. Picture: Supplied

Mr Ramesh’s brother Ajay, 35, was sitting in seat 11J, the other window seat at the other end of the row.

Mr Ramesh’s family said they were “speechless” Vishwashkumar had walked away alive. Another of his brothers, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, told the BBC he “has no idea how he survived”.

“We were all in shock as soon as we heard what happened, just utter shock. Speechless,” Nayan said.

“(Vishwashkumar) himself has no idea how he survived, how he got out the plane.

“When he called us he was just more worried about my other brother (who was on the flight), like ‘Find Ajay, find Ajay’. That’s all he cares about at the moment.”

Another of Mr Ramesh’s relatives told PA news agency he had sustained “some injuries to his face” and “was painted in blood”, but “he’s doing well I think”.

Indian media said they had spoken to Mr Ramesh in hospital.

“Thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed.

It all happened so quickly,” he said, according to the outlet.

“There were dead bodies around me.”

Mr Ramesh was also visited in hospital by India Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Second incident rocks Air India

On Friday, an Air India flight from Phuket in Thailand to India’s capital, New Delhi, received an onboard bomb threat and made an emergency landing on the island, according to airport authorities.

All 156 passengers on flight AI 379 were safely evacuated from the plane according to emergency protocols, an Airports of Thailand official stated.

Air India flight AI379 from Phuket to New Delhi had to turn back and is now circling over the Andaman Sea.

The aircraft left Phuket airport bound for the Indian capital at about 12.30pm Sydney time but made a wide loop over the Andaman Sea and landed back on the southern Thai island, according to flight tracker Flightradar24. Air India has not commented on the incident. It has, however, and in an unrelated matter, diverted or ordered the return 16 international flights due to the unfolding situation in the Middle East.

Two main theories for the crash

Aviation experts put forward two main theories: a flock of birds being sucked into the engines, disabling them both when needed most, and a mystery over the aircraft’s “flaps”.

Captain Saurabh Bhatnagar, a former senior pilot, said the engines may have failed after a bird-strike, similar to the Jeju Air crash in South Korea last December.

He said: “From the footage I have seen, it looks like prima facie the case of multiple bird hits. The takeoff was perfect.”

Salil Colge, a lecturer in aviation management at University College Birmingham, added: “Historically there have been reports of several bird strikes in this area in the past, and that could be one of the possibilities.”

However, others have doubts about the theory.

CNN aviation analyst Miles O’Brien said the aircraft “took off with what appears to be not to be the proper takeoff configuration”. He said we would have seen fire in the footage if it was a bird strike.

Marco Chan, of Buckinghamshire New University, in Wycombe, also had concerns about the position of the flaps on the wings.

There were also theories that the plane was not correctly set up for takeoff, with the flaps not properly deployed. They are segments of the wing that can be extended to assist with lift. If set wrongly, they could stall the plane.

Terry Tozer, a former pilot and author of the book ‘Why planes crash’, told Sky News an issue with the flaps was “a reasonably logical explanation for a well-designed aircraft sinking to the earth in this way.”

Investigators with the NTSB will travel to assist their Indian counterparts, the nation’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, in its probe of the incident.

“The NTSB will be leading a team of US investigators travelling to India to assist … with (the) investigation into the crash of an Air India Boeing 787 in Ahmedabad, India,” the agency announced.

It added that under international protocols, “all information on the investigation will be provided by the Government of India.”

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said there was “no indication” as yet of safety concerns with the plane.

“We have no preliminary information. We don’t have that information yet, it’s very new,” Mr Duffy said at a press conference, explaining no conclusions had been drawn.

“Our teams are just going to deploy (to India) right now.”

‘No indication’ of plane safety concerns

What caused the brutal crash remains unclear, with the plane’s black boxes yet to be recovered.

In footage of the plane taking off, however, it appeared to have its landing gear down and flags up at a time in the flight when those should have been reversed, former US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chairman, Robert Sumwalt, told CBS News.

Video of the aircraft struggling over the ground suggested that it may not have been under full power, experts said.

Footage after take off showed that the flaps appeared to have been completely or partially retracted from take-off position. That would have meant the plane didn’t have the lift crucial for avoiding the aerodynamic stall it suffered when the pilot pulled the nose up in a frantic final attempt to keep the plane in the air.

Denys Davydov, a Boeing 737 captain with a Ukrainian airline, said: “It looks like the flaps were up and the gear was down which was the strangest thing for me.”

In footage of the plane taking off, it appeared to have its landing gear down and flags up at a time in the flight when those should have been reversed. Picture: X

Aviation consultant John M Cox told the Associated Press the plane had its nose up and was not climbing.

“At this point, it’s very, very, very early, we don’t know a whole lot,” Mr Cox said.

“But the 787 has very extensive flight data monitoring – the parameters on the flight data recorder are in the thousands – so once we get that recorder, they’ll be able to know pretty quickly what happened.”

The plane crashed just moments after taking off. Picture: Supplied

‘Losing power’: Pilot’s last words

The pilot of the doomed flight, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, warned the plane was “losing power” moments before it smashed into the doctors’ hostel.

“Mayday (...) no thrust, losing power, unable to lift,” Captain Sabharwal, who had years of experience and had spent 8200 hours in the air over his career, called out down his radio, The Sun reports.

The plane had just a few hundred feet of altitude when the power apparently cut out.

Capt Sabharwal and his co-pilot, Officer Clive Kundar, wrestled for 17 seconds with the controls before the jet careened into the buildings below.

The plane's pilot, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal. Picture: Supplied

His co-pilot, Officer Clive Kundar. Picture: Supplied

‘The plane was in flames’

Earlier, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said survivors had been found in a social media video message.

“Injured passengers have been taken by local authorities to the nearest hospitals. We are actively working with authorities on all emergency response efforts,” Mr Wilson said.

“A special team of caregivers from Air India is on their way to Ahmedabad to provide additional support.”

Ahmedabad City Police Commissioner GS Malik said that “since the aeroplane has fallen on an area which was residential and had some offices, there are more casualties as well”.

“Some locals would have also died,” he said.

One resident, who declined to be named, said they saw people “jumping from the second and third floor” of a building near the crash site “to save themselves”.

“The plane was in flames,” the witness told AFP.

First victims identified

British residents Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their daughter, who lived in Gloucester, were on board the flight, according to a statement from the Gloucester Muslim Society

“Today, we are profoundly heartbroken by the devastating loss of life in the catastrophic crash of Flight AI171, travelling from Ahmedabad to London,” it read.

Gujarat’s former chief minister, Vijay Rupani, is among those killed, India’s civil aviation minister told reporters. Rupani, 68, served as the chief minister of the western Indian state in 2016-21. He was a member of the governing BJP party.

The MP for Leicester East in the UK said she had information that “a handful of Leicester residents” were on board the plane.

Shivani Raja told the BBC that her community, which has a high population of British-Gujaratis, is “really horrified and devastated waking up to such tragic news”.

“So far my understanding is that there are a handful of Leicester residents who were on board that flight – but I am still awaiting for official reports on that,” the Conservative MP said.

An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board crashed during takeoff at Ahmedabad airport. Picture: Supplied

Thick black smoke was seen rising from the site. Picture: Supplied

India’s Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), said some 50 to 60 students studying medicine were taken to hospital after the flight crashed into a doctors’ hostel.

The association said five students are missing, and at least two are in the intensive care unit.

An emergency centre has been activated and a support team set up for families seeking information, according to authorities.

Further footage shows the wreckage among city buildings engulfed by thick black smoke rising up into the sky.

The signal from the aircraft was lost at 08:08 UTC (13:38 local time) at 625 feet, less than a minute after take off, according to FlightRadar.

Airline’s ‘deep sorrow’ over tragedy

Air India’s Mr Wilson, expressed “deep sorrow” over the disaster.

“I would like to express our deep sorrow about this event,” he said in a video statement posted on X.

“This is a difficult day for all of us at Air India and our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, their families and loved ones.”

The crash was the first ever for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to AFP.

This photo shared by India's Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) shows debris of a plane that crashed in the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat state, Thursday, June 12, 2025. Picture: CISF via AP

The UK government announced it was sending a team to support the investigation in Ahmedabad.

“The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has formally offered its assistance to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, India. We are deploying a multidisciplinary investigation team to India to support the Indian led investigation,” the AAIB said in a statement.

US plane maker Boeing said it was ready to support Air India following the incident.

“We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them,” said a Boeing statement.

“Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected.”

Tata Group, which owns Air India, announced it will give 1 crore rupees – the equivalent of around A$179,000 – to the families of each person who was killed in the crash.

It will also cover the medical expenses of those injured and provide support for rebuilding the medical hostel that was hit.

“No words can adequately express the grief we feel at this moment,” it said in a statement posted on X, external.

Family members of one of the crew members of Air India flight 171 mourn at their home in Thoubal Mayai Leikai near Imphal in the Indian state of Manipur. Picture: AFP

Family members of one of the crew members of Air India flight 171 mourn at their house in Thoubal Mayai Leikai near Imphal in the Indian state of Manipur. Picture: AFP

Doomed plane recently departed Melbourne

Footage shared by local media outlets shows the plane seemingly stall before hitting the ground with a large explosion following soon after.

The aircraft had been in Melbourne and departed for Delhi on Sunday June 8, flight data shows.

A spokesperson from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement: “The Australian Government expresses its condolences to those affected by the Air India crash in Ahmedabad”.

“The Australian High Commission in New Delhi and the Consulate-General in Mumbai are urgently following up with the local authorities to determine whether there were any Australians on board,” they said.

The Directorate General of India’s Civil Aviation earlier confirmed 242 people were on the flight.

“There were 242 persons on board the aircraft consisting of two pilots and 10 cabin crew,” they said in a statement.

“It gave a MAYDAY Call to ATC (air traffic control), but thereafter no response was given by the aircraft,” they said, adding that the aircraft “fell on ground outside the airport perimeter”.

Flightradar24, an online flight tracking service, stated: “The aircraft involved is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner” flying under flight number AI171.

“We received the last signal from the aircraft at (6.08pm Sydney time), just seconds after take off.” it said.

Air India is currently ascertaining details and will provide updates soon. Picture: Supplied

Union Civil Aviation minister expressed shock and emphasised co-ordinated rescue efforts and support for those affected. Picture: Supplied

Gatwick Airport confirmed the flight, which had been due to arrive at 6:25pm local time in London, had crashed on departure.

World leaders react

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted about the tragedy on X.

“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words.

“In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it,” he wrote.

“Have been in touch with ministers and authorities who are working to assist those affected.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the incident as devastating.

“The scenes emerging of a London-bound plane carrying many British nationals crashing in the Indian city of Ahmedabad are devastating,” he said on X.

“I am being kept updated as the situation develops, and my thoughts are with the passengers and their families at this deeply distressing time.”

People stand around the debris of an aeroplane after it crashed in India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, Thursday, June 12, 2025. Picture: Ajit Solanki

Rescue officials are seen near the wreckage of Air India flight 171. Picture: Sam Panthakay, AFP

Britain’s King Charles issued a statement saying that he and Queen Camilla are “desperately shocked by the terrible events in Ahmedabad this morning”.

“Our special prayers and deepest possible sympathy are with the families and friends of all those affected by this appallingly tragic incident across so many nations, as they await news of their loved ones,” he said.

“I would like to pay a particular tribute to the heroic efforts of the emergency services and all those providing help and support at this most heartbreaking and traumatic time.”

Speaking at the White House, US President Donald Trump said he has offered “anything we can do” to Indian authorities after the “horrific crash”.

“Nobody had any idea what happened,” he said. “It looks like it was flying just fine.”

Mr Trump also described it as “one of the most worst crashes in aviation history”.

Search and rescue teams respond to the scene of a plane crash in Ahmedabad, India, Thursday, June 12, 2025. Picture: Ajit Solanki

Rescue officials work at the site where Air India flight 171 crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025. Picture: Sam Panthaky/AFP

The back of Air India flight 171 is pictured at the site after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025. Picture: Sam Panthaky/AFP

Union Civil Aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu stated he was “shocked” to learn of the crash in Ahmedabad.

“Shocked and devastated to learn about the flight crash in Ahmedabad. We are on highest alert. I am personally monitoring the situation and have directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and co-ordinated action,” he said on X.

“Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site. My thoughts and prayers are with all those on board and their families,” he added.

The Air India desk at Gatwick Airport, showing information that the flight to Goa has been cancelled, Thursday, June 12, 2025, after an Air India jet bound for London crashed in Ahmedabad, India with more than 240 people on board. Picture: Kin Cheung

Passengers arrive at Gatwick Airport, south of London, in June 12, 2025 after a London-bound passenger jet with 242 people aboard crashed shortly after takeoff from India's Ahmedabad airport. Picture: AFP

First ever crash for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner

The doomed Air India plane was the first ever for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to AFP.

The long-haul aircraft that has been in operation since 2011 and could carry between 248 and 330 people.

Boeing’s program for the plane had suffered several setbacks, including repeated and costly delivery suspensions between 2021 and 2023, mainly due to assembly faults and manufacturing quality issues.

The US Federal Aviation Administration ended up reinforcing quality assurance checks and inspections on the production lines.

In April this year, the FAA authorised Boeing to step up its production pace to make seven planes a month, from five previously.

In terms of sales, Boeing is facing headwinds.

The manufacturer did not deliver any aircraft to China in May, despite having a green light from Beijing, which the month before had temporarily barred Chinese airlines from dealing with the company because of the trade war unleashed by Washington.