Air India plane crash investigation is underway. Here’s what we know.

Authorities continued to investigate Friday a day after a large passenger plane with 242 people on board crashed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, shortly after its departure for London Gatwick Airport. Officials say 241 of the passengers and crew on flight AI171 were confirmed dead, but one passenger survived. Casualties were also reported on the ground.

The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, left Ahmedabad Airport at 1:38 p.m. local time. The plane went down minutes later in a residential area, hitting buildings, including the dining area of a medical college, officials said.

Although law enforcement initially told reporters that no one on the plane survived, officials later confirmed that one man had survived and was being treated at a local hospital.

Here’s what we know so far.

Air India plane crashes in Ahmedabad

The director general of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, told The Associated Press that flight AI171 crashed five minutes after its departure from Ahmedabad airport. The live tracking site Flight Radar reported receiving a final signal from the aircraft only seconds after it took off. 

Data collected by Flight Radar showed the jet briefly reaching a maximum barometric altitude of 625 feet before beginning to descend at a vertical speed of  about 475 feet per minute — a steep dive.

Video shared online and verified by CBS News showed the jet low over buildings near the airport, descending toward the ground and disappearing from view. An enormous ball of fire and smoke erupted seconds later. 

What caused the Air India crash?

The cause of Thursday’s crash was not immediately clear. India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is leading the investigation.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board confirmed it will lead a U.S. team currently heading to India to assist the local authorities. U.S. Federal Aviation Administration officials also said they are deploying teams to India to assist in the investigation alongside the NTSB.

“When an international incident occurs, that government leads the investigation,” the FAA said in a statement. “In the event assistance is requested, the NTSB is the official U.S. representative and the FAA provides technical support. We stand ready to launch a team immediately in coordination with the NTSB.”

Air India and Boeing said they are prepared to cooperate and support the investigation.

In videos of the crash, the plane appeared to have its landing gear down and flaps up at a time in the flight when those should have been reversed, former NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt told CBS News.

Aviation consultant John M. Cox told the AP the aircraft had its nose up and was not climbing, which investigators are expected to look at.

“At this point, it’s very, very, very early, we don’t know a whole lot,” he said. “But the 787 has very extensive flight data monitoring — the parameters on the flight data recorder are in the thousands — so once we get that recorder, they’ll be able to know pretty quickly what happened.”

There were reports Friday that at least one of the so-called “black boxes” — the flight data and cockpit voice recorders — from the plane had been recovered from the charred wreckage.

“Directorate General of Civil Aviation team have recovered one black box from the crash site,” the French news agency AFP quoted a senior state police officer as saying Friday. They did not say whether it was believed to be the flight data or cockpit voice recorder.  

India’s civil aviation minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, said he was “shocked and devastated” by the crash.

“We are on highest alert,” Kinjarapu wrote in a social media post. “I am personally monitoring the situation and have directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “the tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us” and called it “heartbreaking beyond words.”

Map shows where Air India plane crashed

The Air India crash happened in the city of Ahmedabad, near the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, where the plane had departed. Ahmedabad is located in the western Indian state of Gujarat. 

Victims of the Air India crash

Air India said in a statement that 241 people on the plane died in the crash. “The sole survivor is being treated in a hospital,” the airline said in a statement.

The passengers of the plane were identified as 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national, Air India said. The airline said the survivor is a British national of Indian origin.

Indian media outlets identified U.K. citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh as the man in a local hospital who said he had survived the crash. He had been listed as the passenger in seat 11A on the flight manifest shared by Indian authorities. 

Dr. Dhaval Gameti at Ahmedabad’s Civil Hospital told the AP that he had examined Ramesh. While the survivor “was disoriented with multiple injuries all over his body … he seems to be out of danger,” Gameti said.

At least five medical students died when part of the plane hit the dining area of B.J. Medical College, Divyansh Singh, the vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Association told the AP.  Singh said almost 50 people who were in the building are injured — some critically.

“We are in close contact with our peers in the hospital who are on a lookout for more people feared buried in the debris,” he said.

The Indian Army was assisting civil authorities in combing through the debris and helping to treat the injured, the AP reported.

London Gatwick Airport said it was working with Air India to establish hotlines for relatives of flight AI171’s passengers.  

“London Gatwick is liaising closely with Air India and a reception centre for relatives of those on board is being set up where information and support will be provided,” airport officials said in a statement. “British nationals who require consular assistance or have concerns about friends or family should call 020 7008 5000. Air India have set up a dedicated passenger hotline number 1800 5691 444 to provide more information.”

Spotlight on Boeing 

The Air India crash appeared to be the first involving a Boeing Dreamliner, according to the company’s statistical summary of commercial jet accidents between 1954 and 2024. 

The aircraft manufacturer has described this model as the aviation industry’s “best-selling passenger widebody of all time.”

“We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected,” a spokesperson for Boeing said in a statement to CBS News several hours after the incident. 

On Wall Street, shares of Boeing fell $15.34, or 7.2%, to $198.66 in pre-market trading.