Mumbai: Air India flight AIC129, which took off from Mumbai for London, early on Friday, has turned back midway. This has been reported by Flightradar24. The cause is not known.
This comes a day after India witnessed one of the worst tragedies in its aviation history. On Thursday, an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London, with 242 people on board, crashed within minutes after takeoff from the Ahmedabad airport.
Air India posted on X at 12.41am on Friday, that 241 people in the aircraft have died.
“Air India confirms that flight AI171, operating from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick on 12 June 2025, was involved in an accident. The 12-year-old Boeing 787-8 aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1338 hrs, carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew. The aircraft crashed shortly after take-off. We regret to inform that, of the 242 aboard, there are 241 confirmed fatalities. The sole survivor is being treated in a hospital. The passengers comprised 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, 7 Portuguese nationals and 1 Canadian national. The survivor is a British national of Indian origin,” Air India posted.
There have also been a large number of casualties on the ground as the aircraft crashed into the hostel complex of the B J Medical College and Hospital at Meghani Nagar, located next to the airport. A number of MBBS students are among those killed in the horrific accident.
The lone survivor of the crash was identified as Indian-origin British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh who was returning to the UK with his brother Ajay Kumar Rakesh.
Speaking to the media, Ramesh had said: “Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly. When I got up, there were bodies all around.”
