Air India has confirmed that, of the 242 people aboard the crashed London-bond plane, there are now 241 confirmed fatalities, and that the sole survivor is currently being treated in a hospital.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Air India flight AI171, operating from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick on 12 June 2025, was involved in a fatal accident on Thursday.
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 airline stated.
It was gathered that 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 disclosed, and he has been identified as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was in seat 11A of the flight.
Ramesh, believed his brother was on the same flight, while narrating his experience, said the aircraft crashed almost immediately after takeoff.
“Thirty seconds after takeoff there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly,” Ramesh told the Hindustan Times from a general ward in the civil hospital in Asarwa, Ahmedabad.
The 40-year-old British national told the newspaper he was returning to the UK, where he has lived for 20 years, after visiting family in India.
Another brother, speaking outside the family home in Leicester, in the East Midlands, said Ramesh had “no idea” how he escaped.
Nayan Kumar Ramesh, 27, added: “We were just shocked as soon as we heard it. I last spoke to him yesterday morning. We’re devastated, just devastated. He said, ‘I have no idea how I exited the plane’.”
A relative added: “He’s doing well I think. It’s a big shock. I don’t have many words to describe the incident.”
Initial reports suggested all passengers onboard had died, but local police confirmed they had found one survivor of the flight, which plummeted into a medical college on Thursday, with videos showing a huge explosion and thick smoke in the immediate aftermath.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was engulfed in a huge fireball after crashing into the Meghani Nagar residential area minutes after taking off at 1.38pm local time (09:08 BST) on Thursday.