It’s been just over an hour since we first reported an Air India plane crashed near the airport in Ahmedabad.
Here’s what we know so far:
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There were 242 people on board, including two pilots and 10 cabin crew
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Of the passengers, there were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals
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The plane - a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner - gave a mayday call to air traffic control after taking off, but then gave no response
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Signal was lost seconds after take-off when the plane had reached 625 feet (190m), according to Flight Radar
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The plane came down in a residential area near the airport
“Everyone is running right now trying to save as many lives as possible,” the BBC’s Roxy Gagdekar reports from the scene
Absolute carnage. The plane was barely off the ground before what looks like a total, sudden failure.
In the videos you can hear the Ram Air Turbine whining which indicates multi-engine failure/hydraulics loss. The explosion is large enough that I’d be surprised if much of the plane can be recovered, but I’m really curious to learn why a new flagship plane is failing to that degree.
it’s boeing?
A 787-8 dreamliner but I don’t think details about the specific plane have been accurately reported yet.
From the live news feed:
The model was launched 14 years ago and just six weeks ago the US planemaker lauded the fact the model, also known as the Dreamliner, has reached the milestone of carrying 1 billion passengers. To mark that occasion the company said the global 787 fleet of more than 1,175 airplanes has flown nearly 5 million flights covering more than 30 million flight hours.
(CW: Plane exploding in the middle of a city): There are a couple angles of video showing the crash already appearing online. https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/1l9hv2r/12062025_boeing_787_passenger_plane_bound_for_the
From what I’ve seen in that thread and the /r/aviation megathread, the emergency power system called a Ram Air Turbine is clearly audible. This would indicate a total engine failure. The pilot potentially told ATC they were having engine troubles prior to takeoff. It’s also possible that the flaps are set incorrectly but the videos are too grainy to discern that properly. It also seems that the plane crashed into a hostel for medical students or doctors with a massive explosion so I would anticipate this having a really high death toll.
The crash looks like it would have to be a miracle for anyone to survive on the plane. I just hope that there wasn’t too many people on the ground where it hit.
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Is there an easy way to book flights that aren’t in Boeings?
Fuck this is awful
