Video shows Air India plane descending over Ahmedabad, crashing behind buildings

The moments before an Air India passenger plane crashed in western India Thursday were captured in a video filmed from a building near the crash site, CBS News has verified. 

The footage shows the plane, which had departed from the Ahmedabad Airport just minutes before with more than 240 people on board, descending over the city. It then disappears behind buildings and there is a large explosion. A huge fireball is seen billowing above the buildings. 

The Air India flight, AI171, had departed for London’s Gatwick airport at 1:38 p.m. local time, the airline said. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was carrying 242 passengers and crew.

The plane lost signal less than a minute after takeoff, according to live flight tracking website Flight Radar. It appeared to reach an altitude of about 625 feet before descending. The crash happened five minutes after takeoff, the head of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, told The Associated Press.

Police initially said there were no known survivors, but a senior Indian police official told the country’s national news agency ANI that one person survived the crash.  

There were also casualties reported on the ground where the plane crashed. At least five medical students were killed when the plane hit the dining area of a medical college, Divyansh Singh, vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, told the AP. Nearly 50 people were injured, he said. 

“Rescue teams have been mobilized, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site,” India’s Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said in a statement posted on social media.

The cause of the crash is under investigation. 

It is the first crash of a 787-8 Dreamliner, according to Boeing’s April 2025 statistical summary of incidents involving its aircraft.