On a seemingly ordinary Thursday afternoon, June 12, 2025, Air India Flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, taxied down the runway at Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, bound for London Gatwick. Carrying 242 passengers and crew, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian, the flight was poised for a routine long-haul journey. But within moments of takeoff, at 1:39 PM local time, a catastrophic chain of events unfolded, plunging the city of Ahmedabad into one of India’s deadliest aviation disasters.
A Sudden Descent into Chaos
The plane, piloted by the experienced Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kunder, lifted off with nearly 100 tonnes of fuel onboard. Just seconds later, Captain Sabharwal issued a desperate “Mayday, mayday” call to air traffic control. When controllers responded, there was only silence. The aircraft, having reached a mere 650 feet, began a rapid descent. Within 30 seconds of being airborne, Flight AI171 crashed into the BJ Medical College hostel in the densely populated Meghani Nagar area, erupting into a massive fireball.
The impact was devastating. The plane’s fuselage tore through the hostel’s dining hall during lunch hour, leaving plates of food abandoned amidst the wreckage. The crash claimed 241 of the 242 people onboard and at least 38 on the ground, including four medical students and a pregnant doctor’s wife. The death toll, confirmed at 279 by June 16, marked this as the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.
A Miraculous Escape
Amid the smoldering debris, an improbable story of survival emerged. Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national of Indian origin seated in 11A, an emergency exit seat, became the sole survivor. Ramesh, returning to London with his brother Ajay after visiting family, recounted his escape to Indian media. “Everything happened in front of my eyes. I thought I would die,” he told NDTV. The impact had broken the door near his seat, revealing a small gap. “The side where I was seated fell into the ground floor of the building. I unbuckled my seatbelt, saw that space, and jumped out.”
Tragically, Ajay, seated across the aisle in 11J, did not survive. Ramesh, bloodied but ambulatory, walked to an ambulance, later video-calling his family in Leicester to confirm his survival while pleading, “Find Ajay, find Ajay.” His seat’s proximity to the wing box, one of the plane’s strongest structural points, and his quick actions likely saved his life, experts noted. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah visited Ramesh in the hospital, where he recovered from minor injuries.
Stories of Loss
The crash left countless families shattered. Among the victims was Vijay Rupani, former Gujarat Chief Minister, whose last rites were held with state honors in Rajkot. Hardik Avaiya and his fiancée Vibhooti Patel, celebrating their engagement in India, perished together. Sisters Dhir and Heer Baxi, in their early 20s, had been surprising their grandmother for her birthday. Dhir, a fashion designer, and Heer, a product manager, were remembered by their cousin Ishan for their “amazing aura” and dreams of global travel.
Ketan Shah, a 43-year-old Dorset shopkeeper, was visiting his sick father when he boarded the flight. His friend Jigneshkumar Patel mourned him as “like a brother,” recalling Shah’s final call to his wife Megha before takeoff. Ashok and Shobhana Patel, a British couple from Kent, had spoken excitedly to their son Miten about seeing their grandchildren soon. The Syed family—Javed, Mariam, and their children Zayn, 5, and Amani, 4—left relatives in Mumbai grappling with the loss of four loved ones.
On the ground, the hostel’s residents faced unimaginable horror. Kalpeshbhai Patni’s 14-year-old brother was among those killed, his grief echoing outside the autopsy room. Anil Patel lost his son Harshit, 30, and daughter-in-law Pooja, 28, describing them as “all I had left” after his wife’s death.
The Search for Answers
As rescue teams sifted through the wreckage, investigators from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), aided by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch, began piecing together the cause. The flight data recorder, recovered from a rooftop on June 13, and the cockpit voice recorder, found on June 15, promised critical insights. A 59-second CCTV clip showed the plane taking off, flying flat, and descending tail-down, with landing gear still extended—a sign something was gravely wrong.
Speculation abounded. Aviation experts pointed to possible causes: a rare double engine failure, perhaps from bird strikes or fuel contamination, given Ahmedabad airport’s history of 38 bird strikes in 2022–23. Others suggested issues with wing flaps or slats, crucial for lift on a heavily fueled jet. The pilots, with nearly 10,000 hours of combined experience, had little time to react, experts agreed. “There would have been no time for him to react if he lost both engines,” one pilot told the BBC.
India’s Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu ordered inspections of Air India’s 34 Boeing 787s, with eight already checked by June 15. A high-level committee, led by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, was formed to probe the crash and recommend new safety protocols, aiming for a preliminary report within three months. Air India’s chairman, N Chandrasekaran, called the crash the “most heartbreaking crisis” of his career, urging staff to use it as a catalyst for safer operations.
A Nation in Mourning
The identification of victims was a grueling process, with many bodies charred beyond recognition. By June 16, 76 bodies were handed over to families after DNA matching, with 119 samples processed. Relatives like Mistry Jignesh, waiting for news of his niece, expressed anguish over delays. In London, a multi-faith vigil outside the Indian High Commission honored the victims, while helplines fielded hundreds of desperate calls.
The tragedy reverberated globally. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the images “devastating,” and King Charles was kept updated. U.S. President Donald Trump labeled the crash “terrible.” Boeing’s CEO Kelly Ortberg offered full support, canceling plans to attend the Paris Air Show. The crash, the first fatal incident for the 787 Dreamliner, sent Boeing shares down 5%.
A Lingering Question
As Ahmedabad mourned, the nation grappled with a haunting question: how could a modern, well-maintained aircraft, flown by seasoned pilots, fall from the sky in mere seconds? The black boxes, now under scrutiny, hold the key to unraveling the final moments of Flight AI171. For the families of the 279 lost, and for Vishwashkumar Ramesh, whose survival remains a bittersweet miracle, the answers cannot come soon enough.
0 Comments