The view shows the remains of an Air India aircraft tied up towards Gatwick Airport in London, which crashed on June 12, 2025, during takeoff from the airport in Ahmedabad, India.
Adnan Abidi | Reuters
Heading towards London, the Air India plane carrying 242 people crashed seconds after taking off in western India on Thursday, with everyone but one on board. Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
At least 270 people have been killed in Gujarat due to the crash, officials said on Saturday.
It marked the first crash of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and was the most deadly plane crash of years.
What should you know about this:
What kind of plane was it?
The aircraft was the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. This is a popular twin Islejet used for longer routes.
The first flight of the plane was in December 2013 and was handed over to Air India in January 2014, according to the aviation industry company Cirium.
As of Thursday, including the plane, Air India had 34 of them working and had plans to order at least 20 people, Cirium said. The airline has built fleets with modern jets from both Boeing and rival Airbus, and has installed more luxurious cabins.
There are over 1,100 Dreamliners flying around the world.
What happened on this flight?
Preliminary data shows that the plane's tracker Flightradar24 was lost at 1:38 pm local time within a minute of takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad.
The aircraft reached a maximum altitude of 625 feet, but the airport is about 200 feet, Flygrader pointed out.
It is not clear why the plane quickly lost altitude before it hit a fireball in a residential area. Other deaths on the ground have been reported to local media.
Air collisions can be caused by a variety of factors, from mechanical issues to wildlife and maneuvering errors, and often involve multiple issues.
What will the investigator see?
The responder combs the so-called black box, cockpit and flight data recorder tiles. These give collision investigators clues as to what is happening during flight.
Collision investigators will look at everything from airline maintenance records to pilot operations, aircraft locations, wing slats and flaps, the weight and composition of plane takeoffs, pilot training and recent rest, to weather conditions on hot days when temperatures were around 100 degrees.
They will also look into videos from the incident, including footage of an aircraft taking off from Ahmedabad. There, the landing gear seemed to have fallen after a very normal takeoff, a pilot from a major airline told CNBC.
Under international protocols, the country where the incident occurred leads the investigation, Boeing, the manufacturers of planes, and the manufacturers of aircraft engines. GE Aerospaceand investigators from the US Federal Crash Fall will take part.
There have been previous production and quality concerns regarding Dreamliner. Are they related?
It's not immediately clear and the final report on the cause of the crash may not be available until next year, but some experts have brushed away manufacturing issues as the plane has been flying for more than a decade.
“I don't think this is a manufacturing or production issue,” said Jeff Gutsetti, a retired aviation safety investigator with the US National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.
He said that it is too early to tell what problems or problems the problem is, as air crashes often come with several obstacles.
“The plane appears to have gone off the runway without any problems, but for some reason we couldn't climb,” he said.
Boeing had problems with the Dreamliner before, but no immediate connection was clear, experts said.
Last year, a whistleblower claimed that Boeing took a shortcut of a 787 to reduce bottlenecks and created “excessive stress” in the joints of major planes. Boeing denied the charges.
Additionally, due to manufacturing defects in which parts of the fuselage were inappropriately spaced, aircraft delivery was grounded for about a year until mid-2022.
After Dreamliner first launched service in 2011, the plane was grounded for inspection due to the fear of a lithium battery fire.
What does this mean for Boeing?
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took the reins last August, is working to bring the manufacturer, the top US exporter, into the spotlight due to a string of safety and manufacturing crises.
The company was already caught up in two crashes on the bestselling 737 Max Jet when the door plug was blown out of the new Max 9 in early 2024.
The impact on Boeing depends on collision investigation. Demand for new planes remains robust and airlines often continue to order as they can grow over several years.
“It doesn't have a very direct impact on financial performance, but this certainly sucks up momentum until solid clarity is provided,” Wolfe Research said in a memo on Thursday.
“This is expected to have no impact on production lamps and very minimal (and localized) impact on demand,” Wolf wrote. “The modest risk could be a feedback loop for the 777x certification (not yet certified), but it's very quickly to scale the risk there.”
According to its website, Boeing has ordered an additional 900 Dreamliners.