Kalpesh Patni mourns the death of his 14-year-old brother Akash Patni, who was sleeping on the ground when Air India flight 171 crashed in a residential area, at the hospital mortuary in Ahmedabad on June 13, 2025. (Photo by Punit PARANJPE / AFP)
There was one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the jet when it crashed, leaving the tailpiece of the aircraft jutting out of a hostel for medical staff.
This screengrab of video footage taken and released by the Narendra Modi Youtube Channel on June 13, 2025 shows India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) meeting with Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, sole survivor of the Air India flight 171 crash, at a hospital in Ahmedabad. (Photo by NARENDRA MODI YOUTUBE CHANNEL / AFP)
At least 38 people were killed on the ground.”I saw my child for the first time in two years. It was a great time,” said Anil Patel, whose son and daughter-in-law had surprised him with a visit before boarding the Air India flight.”And now, there is nothing,” he said, breaking down in tears. “Whatever the gods wanted has happened.” 

19-year-old Hiren Kantilal, cousin of Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, gives an interview to an AFP journalist in the street outside the family home of Vishwash, the sole survivor of an Air India crash in Ahmedabad City in India, in Leicester, central England on June 13, 2025. (Photo by Darren Staples / AFP)

– Search for black box –

Distraught relatives of passengers have been providing DNA samples in Ahmedabad, with some having to fly to India to help the process.

The official casualty number will not be finalised until the slow process of DNA identification is completed.

Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members.
Women mourn as the bodies of their relatives, killed the previous day after Air India flight 171 crashed in a residential area, are taken out of a hospital mortuary in Ahmedabad on June 13, 2025. (Photo by Punit PARANJPE / AFP)
Those killed ranged from a top politician to a teenage tea seller.The lone survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, said he could not explain how he survived.”Initially, I too thought that I was about to die, but then I opened my eyes and realised that I was still alive,” Ramesh, a British citizen, told national broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed. 

Debris of Air India flight 171 is pictured after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 13, 2025. (Photo by Punit PARANJPE / AFP)
Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Friday that a flight data recorder, or black box, had been recovered, saying it would “significantly aid” investigations.
Rescue officials are seen near the wreckage of Air India flight 171 after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025. A London-bound passenger plane crashed in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on June 12 and all 242 people on board were believed killed, with the jet smashing into buildings housing doctors and their families. (Photo by Sam PANTHAKY / AFP)
Forensic teams are still looking for the second black box, as they probe why the plane crashed after lifting barely 100 metres (330 feet) from the ground.US planemaker Boeing said it was in touch with Air India and stood “ready to support them” over the incident, which a source close to the case said was the first crash for a 787 Dreamliner.

AFP