PinnedUpdated June 12, 2025, 4:29 p.m. ETRescuers were combing the smoldering wreckage of an Air India passenger jet that crashed moments after takeoff Thursday in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, killing all but one of the 242 people aboard and dozens of others on the ground.A senior police official in Ahmedabad, Vishakha Dabral, said early on Friday that 269 bodies had been brought to the main hospital there so far. Mr. Dabral cautioned that the exact toll would emerge only after DNA testing.The plane crashed into a medical college about a mile southwest of the city’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. As night fell and smoke hung in the air, heavy machines worked to untangle charred pieces of the aircraft at the crash site, and their operators treaded carefully to avoid all-out structural collapses.Rescue personnel at the site, as well as doctors and security officials, suggested that as many as three dozen people who were caught in the path of the crashing plane had been killed.Air India confirmed that only one passenger survived the crash. His name is Viswash Kumar Ramesh, a brother, Nayan Ramesh, told The New York Times. Nayan said Viswash had been on vacation with another brother, Ajay, who was also on the plane.“Everyone is completely devastated and just in shock,” Nayan said.It was not immediately clear what had caused the plane, bound for London Gatwick Airport, to crash. Officials at the crash site said it was likely that it skidded after it came down, damaging buildings, before bursting into flames. Sections of the plane, including its tail, were left jutting out of the damaged dining facility.Video verified by The Times that was taken from the rooftop of a building about a half-mile south of Ahmedabad’s airport showed the Air India jet descending steadily over a cluster of buildings before crashing. A large explosion is visible over the horizon.Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India said in a statement on social media that the crash was “heartbreaking beyond words.”Here’s what else to know:Passengers: The airline said that the plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, had been carrying 169 Indian citizens, 53 British, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.The authorities in Ahmedabad asked family members of passengers to submit DNA samples to help identify the bodies.Survivor: A brief video clip circulating on Indian news media shows a man with injuries on his face and blood on his white shirt limping toward an ambulance, saying he had come from “inside” the plane. News outlets in Britain identified him as Mr. Ramesh, who is a British national. The New York Times has not been able to confirm that the man in the video is Mr. Ramesh.Crash concerns: It could take months or years to determine the cause of the crash, but safety experts questioned why the plane appeared to descend so soon after it took off. The type of plane involved, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, has been under scrutiny for years. Until Thursday, the Dreamliner had never been in a fatal crash, according to a review of accident data maintained by Cirium, an aviation data firm. Read more ›Britain’s reaction: The British government said it was working with the Indian authorities to “urgently establish the facts,” and opened a hotline for British citizens in India seeking information about the crash. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that scenes of the crash were “devastating” and that he was being updated on the situation.Air India: The airline, India’s flagship carrier, has worked to improve its safety record after several dangerous incidents. In August 2020, an Air India Express flight overshot the runway in the city of Kozhikode, killing 21 people. Read more ›Jacob Judah and Sanjana Varghese contributed reporting.June 12, 2025, 4:21 p.m. ETThe lawyer for a Boeing engineer called on the Federal Aviation Administration to release a report on its investigation into safety concerns that the engineer had raised about the 787 Dreamliner, the plane involved in the fatal Air India crash on Thursday.The lawyer, Debra S. Katz, said on Thursday that an investigator from the agency told her in December that an inquiry was complete and a report would be issued shortly. But that never happened.“We awaited release of the report and yet, nearly six months later, it has not seen the light of day,” Ms. Katz wrote in a letter to Chris Rocheleau, the acting administrator of the F.A.A. She added: “We write to urge the immediate release of the F.A.A. report.”She also said that the F.A.A. official told her that the agency had substantiated many of the claims raised by her client, Sam Salehpour.The F.A.A. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.It is not clear what caused the Air India crash, which is the first fatal accident of a Dreamliner since the jet started flying passengers in 2011.Mr. Salehpour said last year that Boeing had employed shortcuts in the production of the Dreamliner that could cause premature damage to a plane’s body after years of use. Boeing has strongly rejected those claims, citing the plane’s safety record and extensive testing.Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ms. Katz’s new letter. But in April 2024, the company said that hundreds of Dreamliners had gone through thorough six-year maintenance checks and a small number had gone through 12-year checks. None of those jets had shown signs of premature fatigue to the plane’s body. The company also said then that it had subjected one 787 body to a series of pressurizations and depressurizations. That testing, equal to about 165,000 flights, or longer than the plane’s expected life span, also resulted in no signs of fatigue, it said.There are more than 1,100 Dreamliners in service today. Air India flies nearly three dozen of the large jets, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm.The Air India flight, which was carrying 242 passengers and crew, crashed shortly after taking off in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on its way to London. Everybody on the plane except one person was killed in the crash, along with dozens of people on the ground.Video shows the plane, mostly level with its nose angled slightly upward, descending toward the ground moments before crashing.That plane was manufactured years before the period covered by Mr. Salehpour’s claims, which revolve around work done at a factory in South Carolina, where the Dreamliner is assembled. The Air India plane was built in the Seattle area and delivered to Air India in 2014, according to Cirium.“No one can truly understand the risks resulting from Boeing’s manufacturing processes until the F.A.A. releases its investigative report,” Ms. Katz said in the letter.VideoThe flight crashed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad shortly after taking off for London Gatwick Airport.CreditCredit...Amit Dave/ReutersJune 12, 2025, 4:16 p.m. ETJacob JudahReporting from Leicester, EnglandI just spoke with Nayan Ramesh, who confirmed that his brother Viswash Kumar Ramesh was the lone survivor of the Air India crash. He said that Viswash had been on vacation with another of their brothers, who was also on board the plane. “Everyone is completely devastated and just in shock,” Nayan said of the family.June 12, 2025, 3:36 p.m. ETAir India said there was only one survivor from its plane that crashed in Ahmedabad, confirming the death of 241 passengers and crew onboard. The overall death toll from the crash is much higher, with dozens killed on the ground when the plane rammed into the facilities of a medical college and burst into flames, officials said.Credit...Ajit Solanki/Associated PressJune 12, 2025, 3:35 p.m. ETSean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, said on social media that he was prepared to send more resources beyond the investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration who were already on their way to the crash site, to get whatever data was necessary to ensure that the flying public would be safe.He added that his department “will not hesitate to implement any safety recommendations that may arise” from the investigation into the crash, which is being led by the National Transportation Safety Board. “We will follow the facts and put safety first.”June 12, 2025, 2:47 p.m. ETA doctor at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital said roughly 39 patients who were in the area of B.J. Medical College when the plane crashed into buildings there were in “mostly stable” condition.June 12, 2025, 2:45 p.m. ETA senior police official in Ahmedabad said 269 bodies had been brought to the main hospital so far. The official, Vishakha Dabral, cautioned that the exact toll would not emerge for some time, and after DNA testing.June 12, 2025, 1:58 p.m. ETAlicia ChenBreaking news reporterPresident Trump said the United States would provide any support India needed as it investigated possible causes of the crash in Ahmedabad. The National Transportation Safety Board has said a team of American investigators will be traveling to assist the local authorities. “Anything we can do, we will be over there immediately,” Trump said at the White House.June 12, 2025, 1:44 p.m. ETThe site of a Jeju Air plane crash at Muan International Airport in South Korea, in December 2024.Credit...Kim Hong-Ji/ReutersAn Air India plane crashed on Thursday, killing more than 200 people in one of the deadliest disasters involving a passenger aircraft in the last two decades.The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was carrying 242 passengers and crew members when it crashed shortly after taking off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad en route to London Gatwick Airport. One survivor had been reported as Thursday drew to a close in the city.From a statistical perspective, it is safer to travel by air than by road, according to experts. But airline crashes involving large passenger jets, when they do happen, frequently have high death tolls.Here are some other major civilian aircraft disasters over the past two decades:Washington, D.C., January 2025 — A regional passenger jet from Wichita, Kan., collided with a U.S. Army helicopter shortly before it had been about to land at Reagan National Airport. The plane plunged into the Potomac River. In all, 67 people were killed. Aviation investigators have yet to announce the cause of the crash, which happened at night.South Korea, December 2024 — A Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 that had taken off from Bangkok and was landing at Muan International Airport in South Korea crash-landed, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. It was the country’s worst air disaster in decades. Officials have not yet announced the results of their investigation.China, March 2022 — A China Eastern Airlines domestic flight from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southwest China, to Guangzhou, a major city in the southeastern province of Guangdong, crashed, killing all 132 people on board. The crash of the Boeing 737-800 was the country’s worst air disaster in decades.Ethiopia, March 2019, and Indonesia, October 2018 — An Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed, killing all 157 people on board. The plane, a Boeing 737 Max 8, was the same type that had been used in a Lion Air flight that crashed in 2018 in Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board. Days after the crash in Ethiopia, the United States grounded all of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft.Egypt, October 2015 — A Russian charter flight en route to St. Petersburg from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, crashed, killing all 224 people on board. The Islamic State claimed responsibility and Russia said a bomb had been planted on the plane.Ukraine, July 2014 — Separatists backed by Russia shot down a Malaysia Airlines jet, MH17, above eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 people aboard. In 2022, a Dutch court convicted three men with ties to the Russian security services for their roles in shooting down the plane and sentenced them to life in prison.March 2014 — A Malaysia Airlines flight to Beijing from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, with 239 people from 15 countries on board, deviated from its path, turned west across the Malay Peninsula and lost radar contact. Some experts believe it crashed in the southern Indian Ocean after running out of fuel, but despite years of recovery efforts the crash site has not been determined and it remains one of the world’s most notorious aviation mysteries.India, May 2010 — An Air India flight from Dubai carrying 166 people crashed moments after landing into the southwestern Indian city of Mangalore, killing almost all of the 166 people on board. Aviation officials said that the pilot of the Boeing 737 had missed the runway’s landing threshold.Atlantic Ocean, June 2009 — An Air France flight en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro crashed into the ocean, killing all 228 people on board. The plane had been caught in a thunderstorm and investigators determined that ice crystals had thrown off the plane’s airspeed sensors and that its autopilot had disconnected, leaving the pilots bewildered. The plane stalled and went into free fall. Its wreckage was only located on the ocean floor two years later.Brazil, July 2007 — An Airbus 320 skidded off a runway while landing in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. It crashed into an office building and a gas station. All 187 people on board and 12 others on the ground were killed.June 12, 2025, 1:37 p.m. ETIn a statement, Boeing’s chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, said: “Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected in Ahmedabad. I have spoken with Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran to offer our full support, and a Boeing team stands ready to support the investigation led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.”June 12, 2025, 1:35 p.m. ETAt the main hospital in Ahmedabad, distraught families waited for word of their loved ones. At 10:30 p.m. local time, about nine hours after the crash, some bodies were still being brought to the hospital’s trauma center.June 12, 2025, 1:32 p.m. ETEmergency teams at the scene of the plane crash in Ahmedabad, India, on Thursday.Credit...Ajit Solanki/Associated PressBased on images of the Air India crash that killed over 200 people in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, experts predicted a difficult recovery and investigation operation exacerbated by the risks of unstable structures and gas leaks.Recovering victims, searching for any trapped survivors and seeking clues into the cause of the crash will all depend on how quickly crews can stabilize the buildings that were struck by the plane shortly after takeoff.“This is a very long process,” said Shawn Pruchnicki, a former airline accident investigator and aviation expert at Ohio State University. He said that the recovery effort might take up to a month.Emergency medical workers will need to balance speed with care in dislodging large parts of the plane from buildings, including the Boeing Dreamliner’s tail, which appeared to be jammed into a building.While the immediate priority will likely be looking for potential survivors who may have been in the buildings when the plane crashed into them, clearing the debris may cause those buildings to buckle or pancake.That means the authorities may need to bring in cranes to hoist large pieces of debris out the damaged buildings near the B.J. Medical College, where five students in a dining hall were killed. Then, emergency responders may need to build temporary cribbing to support weakened parts of the building as they look for any survivors, or more bodies.Stabilizing the building will have to be done before investigators can sift the debris for clues about why the flight went down shortly after takeoff, said Mike Boyd, an aviation expert at Boyd Group International. That includes unearthing the plane’s so-called black box, which contains the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. Reviewing that material may take a few days, Mr. Boyd said.The location of the disaster poses particular complications.”Plane crashes pose new hazards when they occur in areas as densely packed and urban as Ahmedabad,” Mr. Boyd said. Responders have to contend with more people hurt, more buildings affected and more infrastructure damaged. There is also the risk of ruptured has gas lines.June 12, 2025, 1:27 p.m. ETThe lone known survivor has not been officially identified yet. A brief video clip circulating on Indian news media shows a man with injuries on his face and blood on his white shirt limping toward an ambulance, saying he came from “inside” the plane. News outlets in Britain are identifying him as Viswashkumar Ramesh, a British national. While there is a passenger with that name on the flight’s manifest, The New York Times has not been able to confirm that the man in the video is the same passenger.June 12, 2025, 1:16 p.m. ETRescue personnel at the site of the crash, as well as doctors and security officials, suggested as many as three dozen people who were caught in the path of the crashing plane were killed.Credit...Ajit Solanki/Associated PressJune 12, 2025, 12:53 p.m. ETThree passengers who died in the crash have been identified by a Muslim community group in Gloucester, a rural city in the west of England. In a tribute posted on its Facebook page, the Gloucester Muslim Community said it was “heartbroken” by the death of Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa and their daughter Sara. All three names appeared on a passenger manifest viewed by The New York Times.June 12, 2025, 12:46 p.m. ETThere is at least one survivor of the plane crash, India’s home minister, Amit Shah, told reporters in Ahmedabad. He said he had met the survivor.June 12, 2025, 12:07 p.m. ETSurveillance footage verified by The New York Times shows the plane taking off from a runway at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The camera was positioned inside the airport’s perimeter and shows the plane briefly climbing before crashing nearby less than a minute after takeoff. The video contains graphic images.The full sequence from take-off to crash—final moments of Air India 171 captured on CCTV. Clear catastrophic lack of lift just seconds after liftoff. pic.twitter.com/l6UAzZ3wtJ— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) June 12, 2025June 12, 2025, 11:46 a.m. ETThe tail of the Air India plane at the crash site in Ahmedabad, India, on Thursday.Credit...Ajit Solanki/Associated PressPlane crash investigations are incredibly complex, and it can take months or even years to identify what went wrong. But video and photos of the Air India crash on Thursday prompted some early thoughts from aviation experts.A widely shared video of the crash showed the Boeing 787 Dreamliner descending over buildings with its nose pointed upward, an unusual position, said John Cox, a former airline pilot and chief executive of Safety Operating Systems, a consulting firm.The plane’s position looks as if “it should be climbing, and in fact it’s descending,” he said. “The question is why.”Mr. Cox and other experts cautioned against jumping to conclusions. Planes and the aviation system have many redundancies to prevent a single problem from leading to a calamity. As a result, crashes are typically caused by multiple failures, which can include equipment malfunctions, improper maintenance, bird strikes or pilot error. Early hypotheses often are ruled out during lengthy, technical crash investigations.Officials looking into the crash will have no shortage of questions to ask, said Greg Feith, a former investigator at the National Transportation Safety Board.“Did they properly configure the airplane when it took off? What was occurring with them? Was there a loss of thrust?” he asked. “Was there fuel contamination? Fuel starvation where both engines weren’t getting fuel that would have caused a loss of thrust on both engines?”The N.T.S.B., the lead U.S. agency in crash investigations, said it would send a team to India to help with the investigation, which will be led by India’s aviation authority. The Federal Aviation Administration said it would provide technical expertise and assistance, and its counterpart in Britain, where the flight was headed, made a similar offer.In the video, the plane’s descent appeared to be controlled. That suggests that the pilots may have been trying to slow it down, said Ben Berman, a safety consultant who is also a former airline pilot and federal crash investigator in the United States.“Any reduction you can make to the airspeed at impact is going to have a big positive effect,” he said. “It’s consistent with that, but it could also mean any number of other things.”Heat is another consideration. The weather topped 100 degrees in Ahmedabad, the city from which the plane departed on Thursday. High temperatures make takeoffs more difficult because engines produce less thrust and warm air is less dense, making it harder for the airplane to generate lift.While the full investigation could take more than a year, corrective actions could potentially arrive sooner, Mr. Feith said.“The whole purpose of accident investigation is to identify safety critical issues — if there’s a problem with the airline, the crew, the airplane itself — you want to get those safety critical issues identified and corrective actions implemented sooner rather than later,” he said.The plane’s black boxes should provide early insights, too. The information on the flight data recorder includes time, altitude, airspeed and heading. The cockpit voice recorder can offer clues about the moments leading up to the crash, including what the pilots were saying, engine noises, stall warnings or other equipment sounds.“If they functioned correctly, they’ll give a tremendous amount of information, because the 787 has a huge number of parameters recorded,” Mr. Berman said.That data could be recovered and assessed preliminarily within days, Mr. Cox said.The footage of the plane’s descent is shaky and grainy, and it wasn’t clear whether the wing’s trailing edge flaps were properly extended as they typically would be when a plane is taking off, experts said. Those flaps and slats at the front of the wing are typically extended during ascent to provide more surface area and alter the shape of the wing to help lift the plane at relatively low speeds.“In the video, you see the landing gear is still down, but the flaps look to be in a relatively up position,” Mr. Feith said. “That will have to be examined. Normally on a large aircraft like that, you need to use some level of flap deployment. If the airplane was not properly configured, that can present a performance issue.”Mr. Berman said that typically pilots retract landing gear, which includes the plane’s wheels, quickly after taking off because it can create drag as the plane tries to climb, but not always. The brakes on a larger, heavier jet like the Dreamliner can get very hot, and sometimes pilots may leave the landing gear down for a bit to cool them off, he added.“It might have been intentional,” he said. “It might have been that they had a massive problem right after takeoff, and they may have neglected to raise the gear. We’ll need to know a lot more about the airplane to comment on this intelligently.”The crash on Thursday has some similarity to a 1987 one on Northwest Airlines Flight 255, which crashed in Michigan after the plane’s pilots failed to extend its wing flaps and slats for takeoff. After lifting off, that plane rolled to the left and right and then hit light poles and a rental car building before crashing, killing all but one person on board and several people on the ground. Despite some broad similarities, experts cautioned that the Air India crash could have been from any number of causes.James Glanz contributed reporting.A correction was made on June 12, 2025: An earlier version of this article stated incorrectly that everybody on a 1987 Northwest Airlines flight had died in the crash. One person survived the flight.When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at nytnews@nytimes.com.Learn moreJune 12, 2025, 11:40 a.m. ETThe main parts of the plane appeared to be scattered around a debris field of over 400 meters, with the tail still sticking out of a part of the dining hall facility. Officials at the crash site said the jet likely kept skidding after it came down, dragging itself and damaging buildings, before it burst into flames.Credit...Suhasini Raj/The New York TimesJune 12, 2025, 11:18 a.m. ETI have just reached the site of the plane crash, in Ahmedabad. The area smells heavily of smoke and fire. There are hundreds of police and clearance personnel at the site still. Heavy machines are trying to untangle burned pieces from the aircraft and a building. Medics and rescue personnel told me it was very difficult to navigate the smoke and destruction to bring out what was left of the bodies.Credit...Suhasini Raj/The New York TimesJune 12, 2025, 10:48 a.m. ETAir accident investigators from Britain and the U.S. will be traveling to India to support the investigation into the disaster, officials said. Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (A.A.I.B.) has issued a statement saying that it has formally offered its assistance to its counterpart in India, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, and was sending a team to the scene of the crash.The A.A.I.B. said that it would have “expert status” in the Indian safety investigation because British citizens were on board the aircraft. Separately, the National Transportation Safety Board said a team of American investigators would be traveling to India to assist the local authorities.June 12, 2025, 10:40 a.m. ETAir India is organizing domestic flights for the next of kin of the passengers and crew members of the plane, the airline said in a statement on social media. Two flights — one from Delhi, one from Mumbai — are scheduled to depart for Ahmedabad late on Thursday night.UPDATE: Air India is organizing two relief flights, one each from Delhi and Mumbai, to Ahmedabad for the next of kin of passengers and Air India staff.Details of the flights:IX1555 – Delhi-AhmedabadTime of departure: 2300 hrs on 12 JuneIX1556 – Ahmedabad-DelhiTime of…— Air India (@airindia) June 12, 2025June 12, 2025, 10:14 a.m. ETDozens of medical school students in the western Indian state of Gujarat were eating lunch on Thursday when an Air India passenger plane carrying 242 people to London crashed into their dining hall. In the aftermath of the disaster, the ripped tail of the wrecked plane could be seen jutting out of the building.At least five students died in the crash in the city of Ahmedabad, said Minakshi Parikh, the dean of B.J. Medical College, whose campus is near the end of the runway of the airport. Officials feared that the death toll at the medical campus and its neighboring buildings could be higher.“Most of the students escaped, but 10 or 12 were trapped in the fire,” Ms. Parikh said.At least 204 people were killed in the crash of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, G.S. Malik, the police commissioner of Ahmedabad, said in an interview. That makes the crash India's deadliest aviation disaster since 1996.Verified video shows the plane descending, almost as if on a glide, and then a fireball rises in its place. Photos and verified videos from the crash site show widespread carnage as well as medical workers carrying the bodies of victims into ambulances on stretchers.Dr. Bharat Ahir, who reached the scene soon after the crash, said he had seen rescuers bringing people out of thick smoke. Inside the damaged dining hall, he said, the meals of many of the students sat unfinished.Dt. Ahir said he feared that casualties in a nearby residential complex, a multistory block where doctors and their families live, could outnumber those at the dining facility.“The plane’s back part is stuck in the dining hall, and the front hit the residential building,” he said.Wreckage from the plane at the site of the crash. Credit...Amit Dave/ReutersImages emerging from the scene show the blackened tangle of the wreckage of the plane. The aircraft appeared to have broken into large pieces, with one wing lying on a roadway. Firefighters could be seen spraying burned-out buildings and sooty, cracked trees as they stepped carefully around the hunks of debris.At a nearby hospital, medical workers raced through busy rooms with empty stretchers and wheelchairs, verified video showed. Crowds of people milled about.Outside, a group of men walked through the streets with a stretcher carrying an injured person. Ambulance after ambulance drove by.Mujib Mashal, Monika Cvorak and Maud Bodoukian contributed reporting.June 12, 2025, 10:09 a.m. ETOfficials continue to leave open the possibility that there were some survivors from the crash, with the fate of 38 people who were onboard still unclear. “The injured passengers have been taken by local authorities to the nearest hospital,” Campbell Wilson, Air India’s chief executive, said in a video statement.June 12, 2025, 10:04 a.m. ETVideo verified by The New York Times and filmed from the rooftop of a building about a half mile south of Ahmedabad’s airport shows the Air India jet descending steadily over a cluster of buildings before crashing. A large explosion is visible over the horizon.VideoCreditCredit...Newsflare, via Associated PressJune 12, 2025, 10:03 a.m. ETMany in India’s medical sector were mourning the loss of medical students who had one day hoped to save lives but instead were caught in tragedy. “It’s a black day for the Indian Medical fraternity,” said Dr. Dhruv Chauhan, a spokesman for the Indian Medical Association.June 12, 2025, 9:19 a.m. ETThe authorities in Ahmedabad said they had made DNA testing arrangements close to the crash site and asked family members of the flight’s passengers to submit samples to help with identifying the dead.June 12, 2025, 8:47 a.m. ETFirefighters work to put out smoldering wreckage at the site where an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed in Ahmedabad, in India, on Thursday.Credit...Amit Dave/ReutersIt could take months or years to determine the cause of Air India’s crash on Thursday, but the type of plane involved in the episode, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, has been under scrutiny for years.Until Thursday, the Dreamliner had never been in a fatal crash, according to a review of accident data maintained by Cirium, an aviation data firm. In a statement, Boeing said that it was aware of the crash on the Air India flight and was “working to gather more information.” Plane crashes are typically caused by multiple factors that can include things like bird strikes, pilot error, manufacturing defects and inadequate maintenance.The first Dreamliner was delivered in 2011 to All Nippon Airways, Japan’s largest airline. There are more than 1,100 in service today. Air India flies nearly three dozen of the large jets that are typically used for international flights, according to Cirium. The plane involved in the crash, a 787-8, was built in 2013.But Dreamliner deliveries were paused for more than a year until the summer of 2022, when the Federal Aviation Administration approved a Boeing plan to address quality concerns that included filling paper-thin gaps in the plane’s body and replacing certain titanium parts that were made with the wrong material. None of those problems had an immediate impact on the safety of Dreamliners, Boeing said at the time.Last year, the F.A.A. said it was also investigating claims by a Boeing engineer that parts of the fuselage, or body, of the Dreamliner were improperly fastened together, which the whistle-blower said could cause premature damage to the plane over years of use.Boeing disputed that, including at a briefing last year for reporters at the factory in North Charleston, S.C., where the Dreamliner is assembled. Two top Boeing engineers said at the time the company had found no evidence to support the whistle-blower’s concerns after conducting exhaustive tests, inspections and analyses of the plane during its development and in recent years.One 787 airframe was subjected to testing that put it through 165,000 “flight cycles,” and the equivalent pressurization and depressurization of as many flights. That figure far exceeded the plane’s expected useful life and the airframe still showed no signs of fatigue, Steve Chisholm, a vice president and the functional chief engineer for mechanical and structural engineering at Boeing, said at the briefing in South Carolina.At the time, the Dreamliner with the longest record had seen only about a tenth as many flights in the dozen years it had been in operation, the company said. Boeing had also said then that nearly 700 Dreamliners had gone through thorough six-year maintenance checks, and eight had gone through 12-year checks. Mechanics found no signs of premature fatigue in those jets, Boeing said.Other whistle-blowers have also raised concerns about the South Carolina factory where the Dreamliner is assembled. Among them was John Barnett, a former quality manager with almost three decades of experience at Boeing, who went public with his concerns in 2019. He and other people who had worked at the factory highlighted shoddy practices, including the improper routing of wires and manufacturing tools and debris left inside planes.Mr. Barnett killed himself last year after a yearslong legal battle with the company, which he accused of retaliating against him over his speaking out. Last month, Boeing settled a lawsuit with Mr. Barnett’s family concerning his death.June 12, 2025, 8:46 a.m. ETThe Ahmedabad police commissioner, G.S. Malik, said 204 bodies had been recovered from the site. He said there could be survivors from the flight, but rescue workers were still searching debris. He added that 41 people were injured; it was unclear whether they were passengers or people on the ground.June 12, 2025, 7:33 a.m. ETAir India planes on the tarmac at the airport in Mumbai, India, in 2023.Credit...Ashish Vaishnav/SOPA Images/LightRocket, via Getty ImagesAir India, the country’s flagship carrier, has worked to boost its safety record after a cluster of dangerous incidents about 15 years ago.The carrier’s previous fatal accident, before the one on Thursday, was in August 2020. An Air India Express flight from Dubai overshot the runway in Kozhikode, killing both pilots and 19 passengers.Air India, which was founded in 1932, was owned by the Indian government from 1953 until 2022. After spending years trying to sell it, the government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, found a buyer in the Tata Group, which is India’s most prestigious business conglomerate. It was also the original owner of Air India.Tata’s chairman, N. Chandrasekaran, said in a statement: “Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event.” Air India removed the colors from its website, leaving a gray and somber statement of sorrow.Tata has absorbed other, smaller airlines into the Air India brand, while struggling to modernize many of its operations. Along with a relatively young airline called IndiGo, Air India now forms a near duopoly within India’s growing domestic aviation market. Air India and IndiGo together fly 91 percent of all passengers within India. Air India has struggled to buy enough planes and hire enough pilots for its ambitions to expand service.Many of Tata’s companies trade on the stock market, but the one that owns Air India is private. Shares in Tata companies, including Tata Motors and the Tata Consultancy Services, lost about 3 percent of their value on Thursday as news of the crash was reported. Shares of IndiGo also declined.Before the incident at Kozhikode in 2020, a decade had passed without a deadly Air India incident. In 2010, an Air India Express plane had skidded off a hill at the end of a short runway in Mangalore, in the western state of Karnataka. It burst into flames, killing more than 150 people.At the time, many were worrying about the safety of India’s aviation sector — there were three near-misses at the Mumbai airport in 2009 — as well as concerns about Air India’s professionalism.A plane had flown without a pilot at the controls for several minutes during a scuffle between pilots and flight attendants. Another Air India plane was delayed 11 hours by a plane-wide search for rats.In a video statement on Thursday after the crash, Air India’s chief executive, Campbell Wilson, said that “our teams are working around the clock to support passengers, crew and their families as well as investigators however we can.”June 12, 2025, 6:53 a.m. ETBoeing’s plant in North Charleston, S.C., where it produces its 787 Dreamliner planes, in 2023.Credit...Pool photo by Gavin McIntyreBoeing suffered another setback on Thursday, when a crash of one of its passenger jets in western India renewed scrutiny of the company’s safety record following a yearslong quality crisis.It could take months or years to determine the cause of the crash, in which an Air India passenger plane, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner carrying 242 passengers and crew members, slammed into a medical college in Ahmedabad, in the Indian state of Gujarat.Manufacturing issues may ultimately have little to do with what went wrong, but the episode — the first fatal crash involving a Dreamliner — could still lead to more scrutiny into concerns about Boeing’s production practices that go back years.“Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected in Ahmedabad,” Kelly Ortberg, Boeing’s chief executive, said in a statement.Mr. Ortberg also said that he had spoken with N. Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata Group, the conglomerate that owns Air India, and offered Boeing’s support. The company said it had a team ready to help with the investigation, which is being led by India’s aviation regulators.Plane crashes are typically caused by multiple factors that can include things like bird strikes, pilot error, manufacturing defects and inadequate maintenance. Early hypotheses are often ruled out during lengthy, technical crash investigations.The first Dreamliner was delivered in 2011 to All Nippon Airways, Japan’s largest airline. There are more than 1,100 in service today, including nearly three dozen operated by Air India, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm.The plane involved in the crash on Thursday was delivered to Air India in January 2014 and had accumulated more than 41,000 flight hours, according to Cirium. The plane had taken off or landed nearly 8,000 times over its life, a typical amount for a Dreamliner of that age.Thursday’s crash comes as Boeing is still dealing with repercussions from two deadly accidents involving its 737 Max plane in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. The company reached a deal with the Justice Department last month, which would spare Boeing from taking criminal responsibility for the crashes.Boeing has agreed to admit to obstructing federal oversight, pay a fine, contribute to a fund for the families of the victims and invest in safety and quality programs. The agreement, which requires the approval of a judge, was opposed by some of the families of crash victims.The airplane manufacturer has faced other prominent safety issues in recent years.In January 2024, a hole blew open on a new 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight, exposing passengers to forceful winds. Boeing told regulators last August that it would redesign the panels to better detect any malfunctions.That episode prompted widespread reforms at the company. Among them was an overhaul of senior management, including its chief executive, substantial changes in quality processes and procedures, increased regulatory scrutiny and Boeing’s purchase of a major supplier of Max bodies.The Dreamliner has been the subject of quality concerns, too. Deliveries of the plane were paused for more than a year until the summer of 2022, when the Federal Aviation Administration approved a Boeing plan to make some fixes that included filling paper-thin gaps in the plane’s body and replacing certain titanium parts that were made with the wrong material. Those problems had no immediate impact on the safety of Dreamliners, Boeing said at the time.Last year, the F.A.A. investigated claims by a Boeing engineer who claimed that the company had taken shortcuts around the time of the delivery pause in fitting together parts of the Dreamliner fuselage, or body. The whistle-blower, Sam Salehpour, said that the improper procedures could cause premature damage over years of use.Boeing disputed the claim, including at a briefing last year for reporters at the factory in North Charleston, S.C., where the Dreamliner has been assembled for years. Two top Boeing engineers said then that the company had found no evidence to support the whistle-blower’s concerns after conducting exhaustive tests, inspections and analyses of the plane during its development and in recent years.One 787 airframe had been subjected to testing that put it through 165,000 “flight cycles,” the equivalent pressurization and depressurization of that many flights. That figure far exceeded the plane’s expected useful life and the airframe still showed no signs of fatigue, Steve Chisholm, a vice president and the functional chief engineer for mechanical and structural engineering at Boeing, said at the briefing in South Carolina.Boeing also said then that nearly 700 Dreamliners had gone through thorough six-year maintenance checks, and eight had gone through 12-year checks. Mechanics found no signs of premature fatigue in those jets, either, according to the company.Other whistle-blowers have raised concerns about the South Carolina factory where the Dreamliner has been assembled for years. Among them was John Barnett, a former quality manager with almost three decades of experience at Boeing, who went public with his concerns about shoddy practices in 2019.Mr. Barnett killed himself last year after a yearslong legal battle with the company, which he accused of retaliating against him for raising his concerns. Last month, Boeing settled a lawsuit with Mr. Barnett’s family concerning his death.But the Dreamliner involved in Thursday’s crash predated those concerns: It was built years earlier in Seattle and delivered to Air India in 2014, according to Cirium.Mr. Ortberg, who took over as Boeing’s chief executive last summer, described 2025 as “our turnaround year” in a message to employees in April, when the company released better-than-expected quarterly financial results. At the time, the company said it had stabilized Dreamliner production at five planes per month, but planned to increase that to seven later in the year.The company’s shares were down about 5 percent in midafternoon trading Thursday.Air India, one of the country’s biggest carriers, had a cluster of dangerous incidents about 15 years ago. Before Thursday’s crash, the airline’s last fatal crash was in August 2020. The airline, which was taken over by the Tata Group in 2022 after decades of government ownership, has been working in recent years to improve its safety record and upgrade and expand its plane fleet.Alex Travelli and Pragati K.B. contributed reporting.