AN AIR India passenger plane bound for London with at least 240 people on board crashed today in India’s north-western city of Ahmedabad.

Local television showed smoke billowing from the crash site near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city with a population of more than five million.

The airline said the Gatwick Airport-bound flight was carrying 242 passengers and crew. Of those, Air India said there were 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.

Directorate of civil aviation director-general Faiz Ahmed Kidwai told reporters that Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8, crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar five minutes after taking off at 1:38pm local time.

He said 244 people were on board and it was not immediately possible to reconcile the discrepancy with Air India’s numbers.

Gatwick posted on social media that it could confirm the flight, which had been due to arrive at 6:25 pm in London, had crashed on departure.

India’s Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said rescue teams had been mobilised and all efforts were being made to ensure medical aid and relief support at the site.

“We are on highest alert. I am personally monitoring the situation,” he said.

The 787 Dreamliner is a widebody, twin-engine plane. This is the first crash ever of a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.

The aircraft was introduced in 2009 and more than 1,000 have been delivered to dozens of airlines, according to the flightradar24 website.

The Indian Workers Association (IWA) told the Star today that it was shocked by the devastating news.

”The IWA shares the anguish and pain of families as we await further news,” it said.

Whistleblower John Barnett, who worked at Boeing for 32 years, raised substantiated safety issues about the production of the Boeing 787 – the same model of plane which crashed today – in 2017. 

He was found dead in his hotel room in March 2024. Police say he shot himself.