Death Toll in AI Plane Crash Touches 270; Centre Forms High-Level Panel to Find Causes

PTI, AHMEDABAD / NEW DELHI, JUNE 14, 2025 :  The death toll in the London-bound Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad rose to 270 on Saturday, even as the Centre set up a high-level multi-disciplinary panel headed by the Union Home Secretary to examine the causes that led to the disaster.

All but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board AI171 and another 29 persons, including five MBBS students on the ground, were killed when the aircraft came down moments after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, before falling inside the nearby campus of the state-run BJ Medical College in Meghaninagar area and going up in flames.

"Around 270 bodies have been brought to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital so far from the plane crash site," President of the Junior Doctors Association of BJ Medical College, Dr. Dhaval Gameti, told PTI. The process of identification of victims by matching the DNA samples is currently underway, and the bodies will be handed over to their relatives once the process is complete. The death toll in the country’s worst-ever air disaster in three decades was earlier put by authorities at 265.

As investigators pore over wreckage at the BJ Medical College hostel and canteen complex for clues after the crash of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on Thursday, Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu said aviation regulator DGCA has ordered "extended surveillance" for the Tata-owned airline's Boeing 787 series planes.

In a post on X, Air India said it has done one-time safety checks on nine of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners and is on track to complete the checks on the remaining 24 such planes as directed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The carrier now has 26 legacy Boeing 787-8s and seven Boeing 787-9s in its fleet.

As investigators looked into all possible causes for the crash, including loss of thrust in both engines of the 11-year-old aircraft, multiple bird strikes, or a potential flap issue, Naidu told reporters in Delhi that decoding of the black box is going to give "in-depth insight" into what happened moments before the tragedy. The Digital Flight Data Recorder, commonly known as the black box, was recovered from the "rooftop" of the hostel building at the crash site on Friday. There was no word yet on the recovery of another black box — the Cockpit Voice Recorder. This instrument records radio transmissions and other sounds in the cockpit, such as conversations between the pilots and engine noises.

The central panel headed by the Union Home Secretary will also suggest comprehensive guidelines to prevent incidents like the Ahmedabad crash in the future. It will have its first meeting on Monday. The panel will publish its report in three months, a statement by the Civil Aviation Ministry said.

The panel will ascertain the root cause of the crash and assess the contributing factors, including mechanical failure, human error, weather conditions, regulatory compliances, and other reasons, it said. It will also recommend necessary improvements and formulate suitable Standard Operating Procedures to prevent such incidents in the future. The SOPs would also include best international practices regarding preventing and handling such incidents, the statement said.

The Ministry said the committee will not be a substitute for other enquiries being conducted by relevant organisations.