Air India Jet Bound for the UK has crashed on take off...242 on board

[hollydolly]

..with 53 Brits on board...

An Air India flight bound for London Gatwick carrying 244 passengers and crew including 53 Britons crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat.

Air India flight 171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, careened back to earth in the densely populated Meghani area of the city just minutes after leaving the runway around 1pm local time.

Shocking images shared to social media showed chunks of the plane's fuselage and tail protruding from a demolished building.




An Air India flight bound for London Gatwick carrying 244 passengers and crew including 53 Britons crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat.
Air India flight 171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, careened back to earth in the densely populated Meghani area of the city just minutes after leaving the runway around 1pm local time.
Shocking images shared to social media showed chunks of the plane's fuselage and tail protruding from a demolished building.



Firefighters at the scene doused the smouldering piles of debris with their hoses as photos and videos taken by horrified residents in Meghani showed a huge plume of thick black smoke emanating from the crash site.

The cause of the crash is not yet known, but footage appeared to show the plane descending in a controlled manner with a high nose angle and landing gear deployed.

Parts of the jet appeared to have smashed into the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital.

Part of the fuselage and the landing gear were seen dangling through a gaping hole in the side of what appeared to be a canteen, with half-finished plates of food clearly visible on benches inside.

Air India's flight manifest said there were 169 Indians, 53 Britons, one Canadian and seven Portuguese nationals on board the stricken jet.

The flight reportedly reached an altitude of just 625 feet before it began to descend, according to flight tracking service Flightradar 24, which declared the plane's transponder signal dropped just seconds after it left the runway.

India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the plane sent a mayday call moments before the crash.

It added the pilots were highly experienced - captain Sumeet Sabharwal boasted some 8,200 hours of flight time, according to the directorate, while first officer Clive Kundar had 1,100 hours of experience under his belt.

Air India's Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran shared a heartfelt statement that read: 'With profound sorrow I confirm that Air India Flight 171 operating Ahmedabad London Gatwick was involved in a tragic accident today.

'Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event. At this moment, our primary focus is on supporting all the affected people and their families.

'We are doing everything in our power to assist the emergency response teams at the site and to provide all necessary support and care to those impacted.'

Gatwick Airport subsequently confirmed the flight that was due to land at 18:25 today had crashed on departure.

Aviation expert Julian Bray told MailOnline: 'It's a Boeing Dreamliner that has gone down - not certain whether they've managed to get anybody off the plane.

'If it has indeed crash-landed and they can deploy the chutes out then they should be able to get people off in 90 seconds. I am aware there are fire appliances in attendance - this is a major incident.

'It is very disappointing that it is a Dreamliner as it is a state-of-the-art Boeing. We cannot rule out security issues. But this is all speculation on my part.'
Gatwick-bound Air India jet crashes seconds after take-off

 

[Pinky]

Such a tragedy. May all their souls, Rest In Peace

 

[hollydolly]

It's actually horrendous, this is a new state of the art Boeing ... this should never have happened.... ..it's quite upset me tbh...

 

[WhatInThe]

They showed a video of the planes final seconds at it looks like the pilot was trying to get the plane to go up. Wonder if the plane lost power. Hopefully it wasn't intentional. Apparently there was a mayday shortly before.

RIP any lost and speedy recovery to survivors. That includes the neighborhood residents.

 

[Rae]

That is very sad news. I hate when so many people die at one time in airplanes as not anything they could do about the mishap.

My best wishes to their families in this tragedy.

 

[RadishRose]

Very sad!

 

[OldOld]

May God rest all souls .

 

[hollydolly]

The Ahmedabad air disaster is yet another tragedy involving Boeing - but the first fatal crash involving the 'star' of its fleet the 787 Dreamliner.

The Air India jet, due to land at London Gatwick at 6pm today, came down on top of homes in the Meghani area of the largest city in the state of Gujarat less than a minute after taking off.

The airline, the flag carrier of India, has said it is investigating the cause of crash on a plane feared to be carrying 242 passengers and crew to the UK from India.






There were 169 Indian nationals on board along with 53 Britons, one Canadian and seven Portuguese people. Police have said there are no survivors as aviation experts claimed the 787-8 Dreamliner may have suddenly lost power.

Other possible causes are believed to include a rapid change in wind or a bird strike with the investigation into the first fatal air accident involving the state-of-the-art Dreamliner jet already underway.

Aviation expert Julian Bray said: 'This is a state of the art airliner, the Dreamliner, Boeing's star product. They sort of fly themselves so there shouldn't have been a problem'.

The Ahmedabad air disaster is the latest in a tragic spate of incidents involving crisis-hit Boeing and its planes.

Just six days ago the plane maker reached a $1.1 billion (£812 million) deal with the US Department of Justice to avoid prosecution over crashes involving a 737 Max plane that killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Both disasters were later traced to faulty flight control systems, leading to the worldwide grounding of the 737 Max fleet for nearly two years.

Last December a Boeing jet skidded off a runway in South Korea, crashing into a concrete wall, causing the plane to burst into flames.

All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 were killed - the youngest victim being a three-year-old boy.

December 2024: A Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft after the plane crashed and burst into flames. The plane carrying 181 people from Bangkok to South Korea crashed on arrival and 179 died

May 2024: A Boeing 737-38J carrying 78 passengers caught on fire and suffered serious damage when a failed takeoff attempt sent it skidding off the runway in Senegal

January 2024: Boeing was pushed into crisis mode after a door-plug panel blew off a 737 Max jetliners during an Alaska Airlines flight

March 11, 2019: Wreckage of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-MAX plane. The plane crashed six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 passengers on board

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Horror as Gatwick-bound Air India jet with 242 on board including 53 Brits crashes just seconds after take-off - with flaming debris and billowing smoke seen near Ahmedabad Airport​

And weeks earlier a Boeing 737 carrying 78 passengers caught fire and suffered serious damage when a failed takeoff attempt sent it skidding off the runway and into the bush at an airport in Senegal.

In May 2024 America's Federal Aviation Administration announced a new safety investigation into beleaguered jet maker Boeing.

The Wall Street Journal reported the target of the investigation is whether Boeing fulfilled safety inspection requirements on all of its troublesome 787 jets.

Regulators claimed that Boeing disclosed to them that their employees may have skipped some inspections on 787 Dreamliner planes.

December 2024: In Norway, a Boeing 737-800 jet just avoided disaster as it skid off the runway following a suspected hydraulics failure

November 11 2024: A Boeing 737-400F was destroyed after it caught fire mid-flight and landed at Sao Paulo, Brazil

November 2024: A DHL cargo flight lost control as it approached Vilnius Airport in Lithuania and crashed into a house, killing one person aboard and injuring three others

May 9 2024: a Boeing passenger plane came off the runway during takeoff from Dakar international airport, injuring 11 people and shutting the hub for hours

May 8 2024: A FedEx Airlines Boeing 767 cargo plane landed at Istanbul Airport without the front landing gear deployed

March 6 2024: a Boeing 737's engine caught fire in mid-air above Texas, causing an emergency landing minutes into its journey to Fort Myers, Florida
The FAA added that it was investigating 'whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records.'

Three months the FAA issued a mandatory inspection order for Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

And in March 2024 a LATAM Airlines Boeing 787 suffered a horror flight incident that left more than 50 people injured, one seriously, when the plane nosedived.

The airline and passengers aboard the Sydney-Auckland flight said the plane with 263 passengers and nine crew members on board dropped abruptly mid-air.

On January 5 last year, a doorplug blew out midair on an Alaska Airlines flight. The Alaska Airlines plane that had its door blow out mid-flight at 16,000ft was a 737 Max 9.

Last year a Boeing whistleblower called for a criminal investigation to be opened into the beleaguered company because their 'planes are not safe'.

Former senior manager at Boeing Ed Pierson said there have been too many faults with the planes.

The executive director of the Foundation of Aviation Safety has called for authorities to open up a criminal investigation as he fired a disturbing warning: 'These airplanes are not safe. They are still not safe.'




Former senior manager at Boeing Ed Pierson (pictured) has called for a criminal investigation to be opened into the beleaguered company because their 'planes are not safe'

Dozens of grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are seen parked in an aerial photo at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, U.S. July 1, 2019
Nobody was hurt during the midair incident. Accident investigators determined that bolts that helped secure the panel to the frame of the Boeing 737 Max 9 were missing before the piece blew off.

The mishap has further battered Boeing's reputation and led to multiple civil and criminal investigations.
Now, Mr Pierson has suggested Boeing may have failed to meet the FAA's deadline and requested an extension after it was told to produce a turnaround plan following the blowout.

Mr Peirson told BBC Radio 4 this morning there needs to be action rather than words.
He said: 'What really needs to happen, as we have said before, is there needs to be a full criminal investigation because these airplanes are not safe. They are still not safe.'
Last week Boeing reached a deal with the US Department of Justice to avoid prosecution over crashes involving a 737 Max plane that killed 346 people.

The agreement, outlined in a court filing this week, will see the aerospace giant pay $1.1 billion (£812 million), including a $487.2 million criminal penalty, half of which was already paid in a previous settlement.
The deal would also see $444.5m (£328m) in compensation to families of the crash victims.
But move has been blasted by the victims' families' lawyer, Sanjiv Singh, who told the BBC the deal was a 'morally repugnant' escape which allowed the firm to 'sidestep true criminal accountability'.


If approved by a federal judge, the deal would protect the firm from a criminal fraud trial.
The two Boeing 737 Max crashes, which happened less than five months apart, claimed 346 lives and sparked global outrage.
In October 2018, Lion Air flight 610 plunged into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, in Indonesia killing all 189 people on board.
Then, in March 2019, Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed minutes after departing Addis Ababa, resulting in the deaths of 157 passengers and crew.

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[oldman]

Boy, it would be a guess at this point, but if it was’t mechanical failure or some type of man made bomb, and seeing that the plane never became airborne at 625 feet, it may have been that the plane was never configured properly for takeoff.

Every airline supplies pilots with a checklist to go over before taking off. One item that is missed too often is the flaps not being deployed. If the plane is not properly configured for takeoff, an alarm sounds. The TCWS (Takeoff Configuration Warning System) sounds. Usually, the pilot gets a series of beeps and they are suppose to abort the takeoff and return on the taxiway back to the beginning of the runway and run the checklist again.

I am not saying this is what happened, but it does happen. In my 33 years of flying for United, I only flew Boeing jets. Through that period, I only had two issues pop up. One was a stuck slat and the other was my flaps would not fully extend for landing. Both issues were resolved by using my training.

I am sorry for these passengers’ families loss. Plane crashes should not happen with all the technology now onboard.

I am amazed at the amount of damage when the plane was only 625 feet in the air and the landing gear was still down. Even something that simple may have put enough drag not to allow the plane to climb, but that’s a reach.

 

[hollydolly]

I had hope we'd hear your take on this @oldman ..always very enlightening ...



Authorities confirmed that no one is believed to have survived the crash, while rescuers told reporters at the scene that they had recovered dozens of bodies of people inside buildings that the plane smashed into as it came down.

The possible causes of the tragedy could include a rapid change in wind causing an engine stall, or a bird strike on both engines.

Officials from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are now at the scene to carry out an analysis of the wreckage and retrieve the stricken jet's black box.

Lt. Col. John R. Davidson, a former US Air Force pilot and commercial aviation safety consultant, said the plane appeared to have reached takeoff speed but not altitude, according to flight data, suggesting 'either a very late rotation or a stall shortly after takeoff'.

'There are a number of possible scenarios: thrust or engine performance issues, excessive aircraft weight, poor trim or flap configuration, or a more critical failure that affected the aircraft's ability to climb,' he said.

'Weather, windshear or even bird strike can't be ruled out either at this early stage.'

Captain Saurabh Bhatnagar, a former senior pilot, told NDTV that circulating footage showing the plane's terrifying descent 'looked like a case of multiple bird hits wherein both the engines have lost power'.

'The takeoff was perfect,' he said. 'And just, I believe, short of taking the gear up, the aircraft started descending, which can happen only in case the engine loses power or the aircraft stops developing lift.'

 

[oldman]

It’s really too early to tell, but all the possibilities the others have listed are possible. If it was a bird strike, the Captain should have had time to alert the ATC. A cross wind? Doubtful. The nose was pointed up, so a stall is possible, but what caused the stall? The plane wasn’t new, so some things can be ruled out. It could have been under acceleration and thrust. That would be pilot error, but before we start down the runway, we always order the non flying pilot to place the accelerators on full thrust. If that didn’t happen, the plane would not fly.

As for overweight, that shouldn’t have been a problem with 242 onboard that plane, however, it would depend on how much freight he was hauling. We will just have to wait for the final report. I am sure the NTSB will be involved since it was an American made plane. Boeing has really had some problems the last 8 years. I think their quality control is not what it used to be. I enjoyed flying Boeing. There used to be an adage, “If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going.” Just the opposite is true today (almost).

I remember flying into Miami some 15 years ago. We had a full plane and our weight was almost maxed out. The plane was about 20 miles from the airport when we received a call from ATC telling us we may experience heavy bird traffic within 3 miles of the airport. I decided to climb above the airport, so I could check out the situation. I saw only a handful of birds, so we went out over the Atlantic to drop altitude and then flew straight in and landed. As a pilot, you have to be hyper vigilant of every possibility when taking off and landing.

 

[OldOld]

How is Air India's safety record?

 

[Mizmo]

So sad and so shocking

 

[hollydolly]

A miracle.....this man is destined to be alive for some reason...




A British father miraculously walked away from the Air India plane disaster which is believed to have claimed the lives of hundreds of people.

Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, spoke from the safety of a hospital bed hours after making an incredible escape from the doomed Gatwick-bound Flight 171 earlier today.

Astonishing footage showed the passenger with visible injuries hobbling away from the scene of the crash. He reportedly sustained injuries to his chest, eyes and feet.


Police found the passenger, who had been in seat 11A when the jet came down, in a residential area in Gujarat, and transferred him to a nearby hospital for treatment.

This afternoon his family confirmed that Mr Ramesh was on board - but that they had not heard from another relative who they believed was also on the flight.

Speaking to local media from his hospital bed, Mr Ramesh said that his brother had been sitting on another row adding 'I can't find him anymore'.

'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,' he added.

'When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran.

'There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.'

Mr Ramesh, who lives in London with his wife and child, was travelling home from seeing family in India when the plane crashed, hitting buildings housing doctors in the city of Ahmedabad.

On the ground, police said they had found another survivor in the hospital struck by the plane. The confirmed death toll has climbed to 290 people, according to police.

Astonishing footage showed the man walking away from the scene with some visible injuries to his face

 

[Teacher Terry]

It’s amazing anyone survived. I feel so bad for everyone involved. I read the plane was 10 years old.

 

[hollydolly]

BREAKING NEWSRevealed: Air India pilot's desperate mayday call seconds before devastating crash as experts raise fears wing flaps 'didn't look right' amid hunt for second black box​

• READ MORE: Air India crash live updates: Death toll climbs to at least 260

The pilot of the Air India crash frantically warned the plane was 'losing power' just moments before it crashed into a building, killing at least 260 people.
The London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plunged into the busy suburb just seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport this morning, claiming the lives of all but one passenger.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience, desperately cried 'Mayday…no thrust, losing power, unable to lift' before the aircraft went down and hit a residential property.

Air India confirmed tonight confirmed 241 of the 242 people aboard flight AI171 died in the crash.

Miracle British survivor Vishwashkumar Ramesh, who was flying alongside his brother, remembers 'a loud noise...then the plane crashed'.

The Boeing was not much more than 400ft above ground when the two experienced pilots onboard apparently lost power in both engines.

They then had 17 agonising seconds to wrestle with the controls before their state-of-the-art plane smashed into a medical college packed with doctors, sending a fireball soaring into the sky.

Distressing video footage shows the jet's fateful last moments as it rapidly lost altitude and speed, which would have filled the cockpit with a cacophony of terrifying alarms.

Captain Sabharwal and Clive Kundar, his co-pilot with 1,100 hours of experience, issued a desperate mayday call warning the plane was 'losing power'.

The footage appears to show them hopelessly trying to nudge up the nose of their sinking aircraft moments before the devastating impact.

Instead of its scheduled 4,200-mile, nine-hour 50-minute non-stop journey to Gatwick, the Air India flight came down just 1.5 miles beyond the end of the runway, in the densely-populated Meghaninagar neighbourhood of the city in Gujarat, northwest India.

The jet smashed into the doctors' hostel of BJ Medical College, sending debris, smoke and fire hundreds of feet into the air, and turning the whole area into what looked like a war zone.

As well as most on board, at least 50 people on the ground are said to have been killed and scores more injured.

Doctors, students and staff were having lunch in the hostel's canteen when the Boeing 787's landing gear embedded itself in the hall with a deafening boom. Hellish video showed shellshocked diners fleeing amid tables laid out with abandoned lunches.

 

[hollydolly]

Can you even imagine the horror felt by the pilot and his second officer as they desperately called Mayday Mayday, knowing that no-one can save them

 

[Pinky]

A horrific end .. rest their souls.

 

[hollydolly]

@Teacher Terry ..they're saying in the news that it was 12 years old.. but that model had a very safe record..

 

[Teacher Terry]

@Teacher Terry ..they're saying in the news that it was 12 years old.. but that model had a very safe record..

I really don’t know what’s considered old for a plane either but I bet @oldman knows. It’s really heartbreaking. Intellectually I know it’s the safest way to travel but I really hate flying now for many reasons.

 

[hollydolly]

A Boeing whistleblower found dead last year had raised safety concerns about the US factory that makes the Dreamliner plane that went down in the Ahmedabad air disaster.

John Barnett alleged that second-rate parts were removed from bins before being fitted to planes that were being built in order to prevent delays.

The engineer claimed there was a risk the decision could cause an explosion that would 'bring the whole plane down'.

He also alleged that Boeing had tried to 'eliminate' quality checks at the factory where he worked in North Carolina, which builds the 787 Dreamliner.

Mr Barnett accused the company of 'countless' violations of US law including use of sub-standard parts to prevent production line delays. He also alleged paperwork was knowingly falsified.

He died in March 2024 at the age of 62. He was found dead in his truck in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina - seven years after he retired following a 32-year career with Boeing.

The Charleston County coroner said he was shot and had died from a 'self-inflicted' wound.

But a close friend had claimed that before he died Barnett had warned her that he would be killed and said: 'If anything happens to me, it's not suicide.'

Boeing's assembly plant in North Charleston - where the deceased worked for decades - is seen here. It is where the 787 Dreamliner is built

But Boeing also insisted but said that the issues that he raised had been addressed.

'Engineering analysis determined the issues he raised did not affect aeroplane safety', the company said in a statement.

Barnett's job for 32 years was overseeing production standards for the firm's planes - standards he said were not met during his four years at the then-new plant in Charleston from 2010 to 2014.

'The new leadership didn't understand processes,' Barnett told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview in 2019 of how brass allegedly cut corners to get their then state-of-the-art 7878s out on time.

'They brought them in from other areas of the company,' he continued, two years after retiring in 20017.

'The new leadership team – from my director down – they all came from St. Louis, Missouri. They said they were all buddies there.'

'That entire team came down,' he went on. 'They were from the military side. My impression was their mindset was - we are going to do it the way we want to do it. Their motto at the time was - we are in Charleston and we can do anything we want.

'They started pressuring us to not document defects, to work outside the procedures, to allow defective material to be installed without being corrected.

'They started bypassing procedures and not maintaining configurement control of airplanes, not maintaining control of non conforming parts – they just wanted to get the planes pushed out the door and make the cash register ring'.

He claimed that tests on emergency oxygen systems due to be fitted to the 787 had a one in four chance of failure in an emergency.

Barnett claimed he alerted superiors at the plant about his misgivings, but no action was ever taken. Boeing denied this, as well as his claims.

 

[Been There]

Those are outstanding pictures. I have visited Boeing in Everett, Washington many times and even flew with their main test pilot. They do a good job with building military aircraft. The loud bang that the passenger heard and the pilot saying the flaps weren’t positioned properly makes me think they may not have had the flaps configured properly for takeoff.

Depending on the direction and speed of the wind would determine how far the flaps would have been extended. I am also wondering if a slat, which is in front of the wing were as the flap is to the rear of the wing, may have become dislodged.

Sorry, I am unfamiliar with commercial aircraft.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I don’t believe that the Boeing whistleblower committed suicide. That would be too lucky for Boeing.

 

[hollydolly]

I don’t believe that the Boeing whistleblower committed suicide. That would be too lucky for Boeing.

agree...

quote '' a close friend had claimed that before he died Barnett had warned her that he would be killed and said: 'If anything happens to me, it's not suicide.'

 

[Tish]

How terrible