Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashes seconds after Ahmedabad take off, 241 passengers and crew perish

By Gulshan Luthra

New Delhi, June 12. An Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner with 242 passengers and crew on board crashed into a medical college hospital hostel within seconds after take off from the Ahmedabad airport for London Gatwick.

Of the 242 passengers and crew on board, only one survived, the 38-year old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British passport holder, who was pulled out of the debris miraculously unscathed.

Additionally, at least five medical students, doctors, and 19 others, staff or visitors, also lost lives due to the impact on their hostel building. More than 30 MBBS students or doctors, then in their mess for lunch, were injured. The impact time was less than a minute, or about 40 seconds, after the plane took off at 1338h IST.

The aircraft had earlier arrived from Delhi, but just as it took off from Ahmedabad, for the Gatwick airport in London, it was unable to gain height. The pilots didn’t seem to have any time to identify any malfunction or take remedial action, but did send the one-second May Day distress signal only once. ATC immediately asked what could it do, but the two pilots had no word apparently as their Boeing 787 had just gone down.

A former chief minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, was among the killed.

“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated in a post on his X social media handle. “It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”

Civil and Aviation authorities, aided by Army, National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), police and multiple agencies, were focusing first on relief efforts.

According to mobile phone visuals taken by witnesses, the aircraft, rather than going upwards after taking off, fast started descending from just a height of around 500 feet, and hit the hospital building. It split into a few parts, and exploded as its tanks were full for the 8-hr flight with more than 100,000 litres of aviation fuel stored in its Centre Tank and two Wing Tanks.

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), security agencies and a team from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shortly began investigating the crash. The US team, including Boeing officials, visited the ctash site.

The twin-engine Boeing 787 is a highly advanced Fly-By-Wire aircraft, fuel-efficient leading to 25 percent savings, comfortable to fly for pilots and comfortable for passengers to fly in them. It has weather control for passenger comfort.

I myself have flown in this aircraft on international and domestic routes with comfort and confidence, enjoying the view of clouds and sky from its bigger than normal windows. The crash is a shock for me, personally and as a writer on civil and military aviation. How it happened  within seconds, just about 40, is a huge mystery.

First Crash of a Dreamliner

This is the first time a widebody Boeing Dreamliner has crashed, since it took its first flight in 2011. Some 1,100 of them are in service with various airlines.

What happened this time is unthinkable. The Boeing 787 has a good safety record notwithstanding some hiccups. There is a huge Question Mark.

Was there a bird hit? Or did both the engines fail, but how? It’s a nearly impossible happening? But whatever went wrong, the two experienced pilots had no chance repeat no chance to intervene as the 787 electronic controls were not working. Their flight time from life to this tragic ending was a very few breaths away.

There was Capt Sumit Sabharwal, with 8,200 hrs of flying, as the Commander, and First Officer Clive Kundar, with 1,100 hrs. Both perished along with others unfortunately.

The pilots did try to stabilise the aircraft but it had neither thrust nor lift. The engines were not responding to the Fly-By-Wire commands. And 40 seconds is no time to understand and execute any correction, particularly, as by then, the aircraft had plunged head on into the multi-storied hospital building.

The aircraft’s Black Box, or Flight Data Recorder which is placed in the nearly crash-proof hard encasing made of Titanium or special Stainless Steel, was recovered and should indicate as to what was happening to the aircraft and in the Cockpit in those terrible seconds. So was the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), which should recod any voice or sounds, od the pilots and equipment in the cockpit.

The Black Box is actually very bright Orange, as that has the most visibility among all colours, and accordingly easier to find and locate.

A video recording of live happenings inside the aircraft, taken by a passenger in those dying moments has also been found.

How Tragic!

The crash is a huge tragedy, a deep wound for Air India and Indian aviation, and for Boeing and global aviation as well.

And huge personal tragedies for those who lost lives, and their families and friends.

On board were 169 Indians, 53 British, One Canadian, 7 Portugese. Besides the two pilots, the aircraft had 10 Cabin crew.

Notably, the pilots were able to issue ONLY ONCE, JUST ONCE, the one-second May Day alarm, the internationally recognised distress signal which is generally repeated again and again to seek help. Tragedy it was, but how ironic they didn’t have even another second, or a few more seconds or minutes, to think of what could have gone wrong, and what to do.

(Special Correspondent Aroonim Bhuyan contributed to the report).