Investigation is being carried out on what caused an Air India plane to transport 230 passengers and 12 crew members crashed shortly after takeoff on Thursday. On Friday two black boxes have been found, an Indian official confirmed to ABC News.
The boxes, with a damaged but recoverable, will be investigated in India and the US researchers will arrive on Sunday, said Shri GVG Yugandhar, general director of the Office of Accident Research of Aircraft of India.
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was on its way to the United Kingdom and crashed into a building in the Indian Meghaninager area near the Ahmedabad airport, leaving 246 dead and at least one surviving passenger, local officials and the airline said. Boeing Dreamliner planes had not been previously involved in an incident where passenger deaths were reported.
The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, visits the site after Flight 171 of Air India crashed into a residential area near the Ahmedabad airport, on June 13, 2025.
Indian Press Information Office/AFP through Getty Images
“The flight, which left Ahmedabad at 1:38 p.m., had 242 passengers and crew members aboard the Boeing 787-8 plane,” said the airline in a statement In social networks. “Of these, 169 are Indian citizens, 53 are British citizens, 1 Canadian citizen and 7 Portuguese citizens.”
The victims include 241 passengers and crew members, as well as five medicine students who were inside the Medical College and the hospital where they crashed in which the plane crashed. Many others inside the building were injured, some seriously, and they are receiving treatment, hospital officials said.
The Civil Hospital of Ahmedabad confirmed to ABC News on Thursday that Vishwaskumar Ramesh, one of the passengers on Downed Air India flight, is alive and hospitalized there.
“Everything happened in front of my eyes. I thought I would die,” Ramesh told NDTV in an exclusive interview on Friday. “The side where I was sitting fell on the ground floor of the building. There was some space. When the door broke, I saw that space and jumped.”
Kalpesh Bhai, whose 14 -year -old brother was killed when an Air India plane crashed into a neighborhood, cries outside the autopsy room in a hospital in Ahmedabad, India, on June 13, 2025.
RAFIQ MAQBOOL/AP
The authorities said previously that survivors were not expected in the accident. The recovery process of the victims ‘bodies is almost complete and the DNA profile of the members of the victims’ family will be carried out very soon, according to the Indian Interior Minister, Amit Shah.
There were about 125,000 liters of fuel inside the plane, with temperatures so high that there was no opportunity to rescue passengers, Shah said.
Rescue officials carry a victim’s body at the site where Air India flight crashed into a residential area near Ahmedabad airport on June 12, 2025.
Sam Panthaky/AFP through Gettty Images
The General Directorate of Civil Aviation of India said the plane “fell to the ground outside the airport perimeter” immediately after it left the airport. The video of the site seemed to show that the plane disappeared under the tree line, which was followed second by a fireball and a thick gray smoke plume.
“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has surprised us and sad,” said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a statement In social networks on Thursday. “It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with all those affected.”
The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, meets with Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, Sole Survivor of the Air India Flight 171 Crash, in a hospital in Ahmedabad, on June 13, 2025.
Narendra Modi YouTube/AFP through Getty Images
Air India announced that he will organize two relief flights, one from Delhi and Mumbia, Ahmedabad for similar passengers and Air India staff.
Tata Group, an Indian multinational conglomerate of companies that have Air India, said it will provide the families of each person who has lost their lives in the accident with $ 1 Crore (around $ 116,000) and will also cover the medical expenses of the injured.
Joe Simonetti of ABC News, given Jovanovic, Clara McMichael, Ellie Kaufman, Sam Sweeney and Camilla Alcini contributed to this report.
