Ahmedabad plane crash: 169 Indians, 53 British nationals among those on board

Air India flight AI171 which crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday was carrying 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals, the airline said. A total of 242 people were on board.

The flight, from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed shortly after take-off.

“The injured are being taken to the nearest hospitals,” the airline said.

The airline has also set up a dedicated passenger hotline number 1800 5691 444 to provide more information.

Video footage showed the aircraft with its landing gear still extended shortly after takeoff and slowly descending, before exploding into a huge fireball upon impact in a residential area. The twin-engine plane had reached an altitude of 625 feet at a speed of 174 knots, according to data from Flightradar24. 

The accident extends a series of serious and fatal incidents in the civil aviation industry this year, including a mid-air collision in Washington early in 2025 between a military helicopter and an aircraft. Air India is in the middle of a strategic turnaround that includes a huge aircraft order as it seeks to tap growing demand from a rising Indian middle class.

With inputs from Bloomberg