Air India Plane Crashes in Ahmedabad Shortly After Takeoff, Killing All Aboard

Tragic Air India Crash in Ahmedabad

• ✈️ An Air India passenger plane carrying 242 people crashed in Ahmedabad, Western India, shortly after taking off for London's Gatwick airport.
• 💥 The Boeing jet, fully fueled for its 4,000-mile journey, lost altitude and burst into a massive fireball upon impact in a residential area.
• 💔 Investigators are sifting through the rubble, and early reports from police on the ground suggest there were no survivors.

International Passengers and Investigation

• 🌍 The flight carried passengers from Canada, Britain, Portugal, and India, all en route to London.
• 🚨 Civil Aviation authorities reported that pilots issued a Mayday call immediately after takeoff, with the signal lost less than a minute into the flight.
• 🇺🇸 The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is sending a team of US investigators to India to help determine the cause of the crash.

Potential Causes and Damage

• 🏥 The tail of the 787 Dreamliner was found resting on top of a hospital, and at least 30 bodies were recovered from the crash site, with many more people feared trapped.
• ⚙️ A former NTSB chairman noted that the landing gear was down and flaps were up in video footage, speculating whether the crew mistakenly raised the flaps instead of retracting the gear after takeoff.
• 🔥 The substantial amount of fuel on board contributed to the intense damage and explosion at the crash site.