Air India Plane Crash
On Thursday, June 12, 2025, Air India Flight AI171 crashed shortly after takeoff. The aircraft was flying from Ahmedabad (India) to London Gatwick (UK) when the plane crashed, killing over 241 passengers and 11 crew members. Only 1 passenger, a British man, survived.
The plane lost altitude only moments off the ground and crashed into the city of Meghani Nagar, specifically the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Civil Hospital, a building for medical education. Dr. Minakshi Parikh, the dean of the college, said the plane crash killed at least 4 medical students in the college.
The only survivor, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, is currently being treated in the hospital. He said, “At first, I thought I was going to die. I managed to open my eyes, unfastened my seat belt and tried to exit the plane.” Ramesh then said his emergency door was next to the ground floor and didn’t hit the building, so he climbed out of the plane.
Bhoomi Chauhan, who was 28 years old, missed the Air India flight by 10 minutes due to traffic. “We got very angry with our driver and left the airport in frustration,” she recalls. “I was very disappointed. Then I got a call that the plane had gone down. This is totally a miracle for me.”
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the site of the crash on Friday and said “the scene of the devastation is saddening” in a post on X. UK’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the crash was “absolutely devastating.”
King Charles and Queen Camilla said they were “desperately shocked by the terrible events in Ahmedabad.” King Charles said in a statement: “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.”
Indian investigators and UK plane experts have since been trying to find the cause of the plane crash. The plane was flown by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his co-pilot Clive Kundar. They were highly experienced, and the captain has 22 years of experience of being a commercial pilot and flying for over 8,000 hours.
One of the possible causes is the very rare double engine failure. One senior pilot said a double-engine failure could happen because of clogged engines. Ex-pilot Marco Chan said there was no evidence from the footage showing that there was a double engine failure.
Plane and aviation experts will need more time and footage to find out the exact cause of the 30-second plane crash and why it struggled to gain altitude.