The roar of the engines. A steady climb. A sleek Boeing 787 8, laden with fuel for its long-haul journey to London, lifts off from Ahmedabad’s Runway 23 – and then, almost instinctively, refuses to climb. Altitude stalls at 625 ft, speed bleeds away, the landing gear still exposed. Seconds later, near a hospital hostel in Meghani Nagar, the jet crashes, erupting into a fireball that rips through passenger dreams and the city’s afternoon calm. That flight was Air India Flight 171 — its dramatic fall marking the first fatal hull-loss of a Dreamliner since its 2011 debut.

• Date & Flight: June 12, 2025—AI 171, a Boeing 787 8 (registration VT ANB 11 years old with Serial Number 36279), departed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad, bound for London Gatwick, with 242 people on board (230 passengers and 12 crew).

• Takeoff & Mayday: At 13:38 IST, AI 171 began its takeoff roll. Moments after lift off, the crew issued a “Mayday" call—the aircraft had climbed only to about 625 ft, where radar and ADS B signals abruptly ceased.

• Crucial Configuration Anomaly: Eyewitnesses and grainy video footage show the Dreamliner’s landing gear still extended and the flaps fully retracted—an impossible profile for climb-out, given the necessary lift and drag dynamics .

• Impact: Within a minute of takeoff, the aircraft crashed into a doctors’ hostel at BJ Medical College in Meghani Nagar. A massive fireball erupted on impact, intensified by the heavy fuel load.

• Casualties: Officially, 30–35 bodies were recovered at the crash site. More lives are feared lost, both aboard and on the ground. Likely no survivors.

• Nationalities Affected: The 230 passengers included 169 Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian citizen.

• Pilots: Flight deck commanded by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal........

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