Air India disaster: only one of the 53 Britons survived

A British man is believed to be the only surviving passenger from Air India flight AI171.

Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, along with 53 other British nationals, was one of the 242 aboard the plane that crashed near Ahmedabad airport.

Hindustan Times reports he was sitting on seat 11A and is now in hospital, having survived the deadly crash.

He was in India for a few days, visiting his family and was going back to the UK with his brother Ajay Kumar Ramesh, 45.

Vishwash shared his boarding pass with reporters and said: ‘Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.’

Vishwash said he received ‘impact injuries’ on his chest, eyes and feet.

The Gatwick-bound flight – a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner – took off at 1.39pm local time and crashed within minutes, and burst into flames.

Photos showed black smoke and a fire near the crash site near Ahmedabad’s airport, the largest city in Gujarat, western India.

Among the nationalities onboard are 53 British nationals, 169 Indian, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.

The moment that the plane crashed just moments after taking off

It is unclear what has caused the accident but the crash site is near accommodation for medical students at a nearby university. 50 to 60 of those students are feared to be dead.

Air India said in a statement: ‘Flight AI171, operating Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, was involved in an incident today, June 12, 2025.

‘At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates at the earliest on our website.’

The crash site is by accommodation for medical students at a nearby university (Picture CISF)

The tracking website Flightradar24 received the last signal from the aircraft at 625 feet after takeoff.

The aircraft was piloted by captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience and co-pilot Clive Kundar, who had 1,100 hours of flying experience. There were also 10 crew on board.

He issued a mayday call then stopped responding and crashed immediately afterwards, according to India’s aviation regulator, DGCA.