One view shows the remains of an Air India plane, destined for the London Gatwick airport, which crashed during takeoff from an airport in Ahmedabad, India, on June 12, 2025.
Adnan Abidi | Reuters
An Air India plane that was destined for London and transporting 242 people crashed seconds after takeoff in western India on Thursday, killing all but a person aboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
He marked the first accident of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and was the most deadly plane crash in years.
This is what you should know:
What kind of plane was it?
The plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. It is a popular twin jet used for longer routes.
The first flight of this plane was in December 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, according to the Cirium aviation data firm.
Air India had 34 of them in service as of Thursday, including this plane, and had plans to order at least 20 more, Cirium said. The airline has been accumulating its fleet with modern airbus airbus aircraft and rival, and installing more luxurious cabins.
There are more than 1,100 Dreamliners flying around the world.
What happened on this flight?
Preliminary data shows that the plane signal was lost at 1:38 pm local time, less than a minute after takeoff from Sardar Vallebhbhai International Ahmedabad Patel Ahmedabad airport, according to the flight tracker Flightadar24.
The plane reached a maximum altitude of 625 feet, although the altitude of the airport is approximately 200 feet, Flightradar said.
It is not clear why the plane lost the altitude so quickly before it crashed into a fireball in a residential area. Other deaths have been reported to local media.
Air accidents can be caused by a variety of factors, from mechanical problems to wildlife and pilot error, they often imply more than one problem.
What will the researchers look?
The responders will comb the debris for the so -called black boxes: the cabin and flight data registrars. Those will give clues to accident researchers about what was happening on the flight.
Crash researchers will analyze everything, from the maintenance records of the airline to the pilot's maneuvers, the aircraft position, as well as the slats and wings on the wings, the training of the pilots and the recent rest, and the climatic conditions on the hot day, when the temperatures were about 100 degrees of Fahrenheit.
They will also examine the video of the incident, including the images of the aircraft that took off from Ahmedabad, where its landing train seemed to stay down after takeoff, which is very common, said pilots for the main airlines to CNBC.
According to international protocols, the country where the incident occurred will lead the investigation, while the manufacturer of the plane, Boeing and the motor manufacturer of the plane, Ge aerospaceas well as federal federal accident researchers will participate.
There have been manufacturing and quality concerns about Dreamliners before. Are they related?
It is not clear immediately, and a final report on the causes of the accident may not be available until next year, but some experts eliminated a manufacturing problem, partly because the plane has been flying for more than a decade.
“I don't think this is a manufacturing or production problem,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air security investigator from the US National Transportation Security Board. UU. And the Federal Aviation Administration.
He said that it is too early to say what the problem is, or the problems, since air accidents often involve several failures.
“It seems that the plane left the track without any problem, but for some reason he could not climb,” he said.
Boeing has had problems with the Dreamliner before, but an immediate connection was not evident, experts said.
A complainant last year claimed that Boeing took shortcuts in 787 to reduce bottlenecks and created “excessive stress” in the main aircraft joints. Boeing denied the accusations.
The delivery of the aircraft were also based on approximately one year until mid -2012 due to manufacturing failures where parts of the fuselage were incorrectly spaced.
After Dreamliner entered the service for the first time in 2011, the planes were based on inspections due to the fear of lithium battery fires.
What does this mean to Boeing?
The Boeing CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who took the reins last August, has been working to move the manufacturer, a better American exporter, outside the center of attention for a series of safety and manufacturing crisis.
The company had already been staggering two accidents from its best -selling Max 737 jets when a cloth from the door left a new Max 9 in early 2024.
The impact on Boeing will depend on the investigation of the accident. The demand for new airplanes has still been robust, and airlines often continue to request because the waiting period can extend several years.
Wolfe Research said in a note on Thursday that “we do not see much direct impact on financial performance, but this is certain that SAP momentum until some solid clarity is provided.
“We do not see any impact on the production ramp as a result of this and we would expect any impact on the demand to be very minimal (and localized),” Wolfe wrote. “A modest risk could be any comments cycle for certification of the [yet-to-be-certified] 777x, but it is very early to qualify any risk there. “
Boeing has orders of 900 Dreamliners, according to its website.
