Just moments after takeoff at 1:39 pm local time on Thursday, June 12, Air India Flight 171 issued a distress call. Then, silence. The control tower's calls went unanswered. Amateur footage, widely circulated on social media, showed the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, nose pointed skyward, beginning to lose altitude before crashing and disappearing in a fireball.

The impact occurred in a densely populated residential area of Ahmedabad, the main city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, himself a native of Gujarat, arrived at the scene on Friday morning. "The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us," he had said the previous day on his X account.

Flight AI 171 was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. It was scheduled to fly from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick Airport, where it was due to land at 6:25 pm. Of all those on board, only one passenger miraculously survived the crash. The man, a British citizen of Indian descent, is currently being treated in hospital, according to Air India. The plane crashed into a building that housed medical students, also causing casualties on the ground.

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