On June 12, 2025, at approximately 1:43 p.m. local time, Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 passengers and crew, crashed shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The London-bound flight was scheduled to land at Gatwick Airport when it crashed shortly after takeoff. Miraculously, one passenger, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was seated in Seat 11A survived the crash, but his brother, who was also on the London bound flight was tragically killed. Mr. Ramesh advised investigators that immediately after liftoff from the runway he heard a loud bang and then the aircraft crashed.
The Dreamliner crashed into a building that was a medical college hostel with early reports indicating that at least twenty-four people on the ground were killed and many more injured.
Video of the takeoff and flight prior to the crash shows that the aircraft impacted the medical hostel approximately one mile from the runway. The video also shows that the aircraft struggled to gain altitude after takeoff likely due to a power failure. Immediately upon takeoff the flight crew contacted air traffic control and advised “mayday . . . no thrust, losing power, unable to lift” but no further communications were heard from the pilots.
Indian aviation accident investigators will be joined by experts from the United States National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) and the United Kingdom Air Accidents Investigation Branch (“AAIB”) to investigate the crash. Representatives from Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer, and GE Aerospace, the engine manufacturer, will also participate in the accident investigation and provide technical assistance. Critical to the investigation will be the data captured by the “black boxes”, the Cockpit Voice Recorder and the Digital Flight Data Recorder. These are sophisticated recording devices that capture a large amount of information. This analysis will provide significant detail into what the flight crew and the aircraft were doing during the short flight prior to the crash, and it has been reported that the Digital Flight Data Recorder has been recovered.
Speiser Krause has decades of experience in handling international aviation disasters, including cases against Boeing dating back to the 1960s, and has litigated these cases throughout the world. The Firm will closely monitor developments in the accident investigation.