SUMMARY
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A London-bound Air India plane carrying 242 people has crashed shortly after take-off in Ahmedabad, western India
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Flight AI171 was travelling from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick
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There were 169 Indian nationals on the flight, as well as 53 Britons, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals, Air India says
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Tracking website Flightradar24 says it received the last signal from the aircraft at 625 feet (190m) “just seconds after take off”
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Videos show black smoke rising over a residential area
Aircraft gave mayday call, regulator sayspublished at 05:52
We now have a statement from DGCA, India’s aviation regulator, which says the flight “crashed immediately after take-off from Ahmedabad”. The statement says:
- There were 242 people on board the aircraft, including two pilots and 10 cabin crew (an official earlier said there were 244 people on board)
- The captain had 8,200 hours of flying experience. The co-pilot had 1,100 hours of flying experience
- The aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 13:39 IST from runway 23
- It gave a mayday call to air traffic control, but thereafter no response was given by the aircraft
- After departure, the plane crashed outside the airport perimeter
BBC Verify has been looking at what flight tracking data shows about the plane’s take-off.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner took off from Ahmedabad at 13:38 local time en route to London Gatwick.
In the image below, you can see how the plane moved to the end of the runway. Flight tracking data ends with the plane at an altitude of 625ft (190m).
We’re currently looking at footage posted online of the crash and its aftermath.
