Air India flight 171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick failed to gain altitude on Thursday, crashing into a neighborhood after reaching just over 600 feet. The aircraft issued a mayday, lost radio contact seconds later, and came down in the densely populated Meghani Nagar district.
There were 230 passengers and 12 crew onboard – and there was one survivor, who walked away from the crash. Thirty eight year old Ramesh Vishwaskumar Bucharvada, who was seated in 11A behind an emergency exit, is being treated at a nearby hospital.
Viswashkumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old from the U.K. is reported to be the only survivor from this morning’s crash of Air India 171 in Ahmedabad. He was sitting in seat 11A at the time of the crash, amazingly suffering only minor injuries and waking up to search-and-rescuers. His… pic.twitter.com/G61woOk4nU
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 12, 2025
This is where he was seated:
Here he is walking away from the crash.
A 38-year-old, who was seated on 11A, is now reportedly the lone survivor of the Air India plane crash. The person has been identified as Ramesh Viswashkumar. According to reports, he jumped out of the emergency exit.#AirIndia #PlaneCrash #Viral #ViralVideo pic.twitter.com/VVve7DtGse
— India Today NE (@IndiaTodayNE) June 12, 2025
This video purports to be from inside the aircraft prior to departure, with a passenger complaining about non-working inflight entertainment and air conditioning. It has not been verified, and there’s no reason to believe the issues are linked at this point.
@grok is this real
— Rick.sol (@Simpleqwertyxy1) June 12, 2025
One early clue seems to be that the landing gear is still extended (which would cause additional drag) and they appear to be at flaps 1 (where they might be expected to be at 5).
There’s no visible smoke or fire. Was there a mechanical failure that caused the pilots to be unable to adjust these things, and perhaps to take off at too low a speed? Or was there pilot error? Could they have started off too slowly, thinking their takeoff weight was lower, and failed to increase thrust sufficiently and retract the landing gear? We just don’t have any answers this early, which is frustrating when searching for answers to tragedy.
Gary, please turn off the autoplay function for at least the audio on the AFEELA ad. It is turning ME off your site!
I would delete the purported video from “inside the cabin”. The user clearly talks about it being “hot in Delhi” and there is an announcement for “cabin crew to landing stations” and view of the wing in flight. Definitely not the accident flight.
Chilling…the video looks like the flight profile for Air Florida 90 which had sufficient speed for take-off, climbed a couple of hundred feet and then stalled/lost speed and altitude with the same nose-up attitude.
If slats and flaps weren’t extended properly on this 787-8, then it definitely stalled with a full load. Even more so if the the engines were in a Takeoff 2 configuration.
Thoughts and prayers to the families
It seems to me that there was some sort of in flight emergency. The plane took off from Ahmedabad enroute to Gatwick. It is filmed making an apparently controlled landing back into Ahmedabad – gear down and flaps extended – until crash. So some sort of emergency had to have been declared by the flight crew for clearance back into Ahmedabad.
Wow, surprised anyone made it outta that. I feel for him and all those on the plane and the ground, especially the students and doctors. This survivor may have a long road to recovery, not just from the physical, but also the psychological traumas, resulting from being a ‘lone survivor.’ Again, I feel for all the victims.
If those suggestions of electrical failure are true, then that may help investigators on a cause. Whether its a passenger aircraft (or a massive container ship in Baltimore hitting the Key bridge), power failures at critical points often lead to disasters.
@GKK – reportedly they originated in Delhi and connected, though again I cannot verify this.
Anyone else recall BA35? First hull loss of a 777. Thankfully, no fatalities. AAIB (in the UK) found it was an engine issue, which restricted fuel flow to both Rolls-Royce Trent 800. 788s typically have either General Electric GEnx-1B or the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. The aircraft was 11 years-old, VT-ANB, with serial number 36279; it had GEnx-1B67 engines. I’d imagine a few folks over at GE Aerospace may be sweating today.
*To clarify: The aircraft in today’s Air India 171 incident is VT-ANB. (Pardon any confusion.)
Luck of the draw….
@Gary Leff — On the ‘Delhi’ confusion, according to Flightradar24, the aircraft had performed a 1 hour flight from DEL-AMD (AI 423) the morning before it departed as AI 171. Previously, it had arrived to Delhi from Paris around 1:30AM this morning, too. Perhaps, crew (and passengers) on those earlier legs were aware of such issues (air conditioning not working properly, which could be an indication of an electrical/engine issue). I’m sure investigators will seek out those details.
The AC not working videos are useless. If you have flown from a really hot airport on a summer day, you would know that the piped-in air while on the ground doesn’t work very well against high temps. Try flying our of Phoenix in Mid July and you will know what I am talking about.
@Roger Milla — It depends; sure, if it’s ‘on the ground’ that’s one thing, but once the engines are on, a newer aircraft like the 787 should cool down relatively quick, even in PHX (or India).
Several unknowns at play here so too early to speculate. However a few knowns, a very hot day increases the density altitude which reduces performance plus a very heavy fuel load on the aircraft, flaps (if pics are correct) not in the proper position, landing gear not retracted upon positive rate would effectively reduce climb performance. Crew response unknown until the flight data and voice recorders are recovered.
I’m guessing electrical problem triggered by early flight conditions somehow. Maybe something wasn’t secured properly in cargo hold, AND a cable was loose in cargo, so when they hit the right angle, cargo slides back and slices the electrical/comms cable, disabling the engines and controls completely.
We’ll see. I’m truly amazed anyone survived that flight.
Since speculation is taking place, I will also speculate. I think the number 2 engine (starboard side) quit producing thrust just before takeoff. That, a heavy load of fuel and possibly a misconfigured wing led to a stall.
@jns — Buddy, it’s VFTW… speculation is all we ever had. I disagree with @av8reb, because it’s never ‘too early.’ It’s just that we’re likely to be wrong in the end. @jamesb2147 reminds me of that cargo 747 in Iraq that went down (National Airlines 102). Ah, theories!