12-06-2025
Boeing 787-8, Which Crashed In Ahmedabad, Had Immaculate Safety Record
Ahmedabad:
The Air India Ahmedabad-London flight crashed this afternoon, marking the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner's first fatal crash since the aircraft's debut in 2011.
With 242 people on board, Air India flight AI171 took off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhai Patel Airport around 2 pm and crashed minutes later into a residential area. Moments before the crash, the pilots issued a "Mayday" distress, call which received no response from the Air Traffic Controller. Flames erupted and thick smoke billowed from the site, rising high enough to be visible from miles across the city.
Before Thursday's crash, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft had an immaculate record with 1,000 planes delivered in around the 14 years since it was launched. Described on the company website as the "best-selling passenger wide-body of all time", the aircraft have carried more than one billion passengers. It is faster than any other widebody jet in aviation history and has a structure that reduces fuel consumption by up to 25 per cent.
The long-haul aircraft has a range of 13,530 kilometres and is widely used by airlines for intercontinental flights. It has a capacity of 248 passengers.
There are 27 legacy B787-8s with Air India.
In the wide-body category, Air India now has 6 A350s, 19 B777-300 ERs, 5 B777-200 LRs, 7 B787-9s and 27 B787-8s. Among the narrow-body fleet are 6 A319s, 94 A320 neos, 4 A320 ceos, 13 A321 ceos and 10 A321 neos.
On board the flight that crashed this afternoon, there were 169 Indians, 53 British, one Canadian and seven Portuguese nationals onboard. Further, two pilots and 10 crew members were present on the flight that was to fly to London's Gatwick airport.
