Air India crash: First major incident involving Boeing 787 Dreamliner - plus Air India crash history

The aircraft involved in the Air India disaster has suffered no previous fatal crashes, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

There have also been no “hull loss” incidents involving the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the database showed.

Firefighters work at the site of an airplane that crashed in India's north-western city of Ahmedabad. Picture: AP Photo/Ajit Solanki | AP

The twin-engine, wide-bodied jets entered service since 2011 and have since carried more than one billion passengers on nearly five million flights, its US manufacturer said.

Aviation analytics firm Cirium said the aircraft that crashed was 11.5 years old and delivered to Air India in 2014.

It had more than 41,000 hours of flying time and had made almost 8,000 take-offs and landings - average for that type and age of aircraft.

Air India had 34 Boeing 787s in service among its fleet of 190 aircraft, with orders for another 20.

The last fatal crash involving the airline was in 2020, when 18 people were killed after a narrow-body Air India Express Boeing 737-800 overshot the runway when landing from Dubai at Kozhikode-Calicut airport in India.

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Ten years earlier, an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 series on a flight from Dubai overshot the runway at Mangalore-Bajpe airport in India, in which 158 people were killed.

The aftermath of the 2010 Mangalore crash involving an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 | Getty Images

However, Dr Jonny Williams, researcher in climate impacts on aviation at the University of Reading, said Air India had a “strong safety record”.

He said: “The temperature in Ahmedabad, of around 39C, is about average for this time of year in that region. Air India is a major international airline with a strong safety record and long experience of operating in these conditions.”

‘We should be very careful not to speculate on cause’

Professor Graham Braithwaite, director of aerospace and aviation at Cranfield University, said of the Air India crash: “The aircraft involved is an 11-year-old Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. This is the first major accident involving the 787.

“At this point, we don’t know whether there are any survivors or whether there have been any casualties on the ground. At this stage, the focus will be on search and rescue at the site.

The back of Air India flight 171 is pictured at the site after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025. A London-bound passenger plane crashed in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday and all 242 people on board were believed killed, with the jet smashing into buildings housing doctors and their families. (Photo by Sam PANTHAKY / AFP) (Photo by SAM PANTHAKY/AFP via Getty Images)

“For the airline, they will be focused on caring for family members and friends at both the departure airport and destination. Until the manifest is confirmed, they will be dealing with a very high number of enquiries from concerned friends and families.

“Early information about the accident is unlikely to be accurate, so even though people will look at tools like FlightRadar 24, it won’t tell us anything about why it happened.

“We should be very careful not to speculate on cause when there is so little reliable information available.”

Prof Braithwaite said it was unusual for an aircraft to crash so soon after take off.

He said: “Although take-off is a critical stage of flight, aircraft accidents are incredibly rare, especially involving modern aircraft types such as the Boeing 787. Take-off is a critical stage because the aircraft is still accelerating and any problem-solving requires a rapid response.

“The accident will be investigated by the Indian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau – an organisation which is independent from the aviation regulator, and which is focused on ‘not for blame’ safety investigations.

“This is governed by an international standard known as ICAO Annex 13. Under that, participants will include the US National Transportation Safety Board as the State of Manufacturer.

“States with a significant number of people on board will also have a right to participate, so I would expect the [Department for Transport] UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch to be involved.”

‘Take-off and landing are the most dangerous phases of flight’

Prof John McDermid, Lloyd’s Register chair of safety at the University of York, said: “It is too early to say much about the cause of the crash in any detail - about the only observation one can make is about the timing.

“Take-off and landing are the most dangerous phases of flight - accidents from cruise are very unusual. However, that said, it’s surprising that the accident occurred before the aircraft had even got to 200m altitude.

“Pilots can abort take-off until quite late in the take-off roll, so it seems like the problem occurred very suddenly in the final part of the take-off roll, or shortly after take-off, and was sufficiently serious to be unmanageable.

“Given the levels of redundancy in systems, the fact that aircraft are designed to climb out on only one engine, on initial sight this seems a very surprising accident. It is very unlikely the plane was overweight or carrying too much fuel – there are careful checks on this.”

‘Bird strike’

Dr Jason Knight, senior lecturer in fluid mechanics at the University of Portsmouth, said: “The aircraft is designed to be able to fly on one engine, so the most likely cause of the crash is a double engine failure.

“Because the altitude was so low, the pilot would have had very little time to do an emergency landing. The most likely cause of a double engine failure is a bird strike, which would take out the engine.”

Paul Williams, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Reading, said: "At the time of the departure, the weather conditions at the airport appear to have been very good. It was a dry and sunny day in Ahmedabad, with temperatures near 40C.

“There was good visibility and light winds from the west. There was no bad weather in the vicinity. There is no indication at this stage that turbulence or other weather conditions were a factor in the crash."