The Ministry of Civil Aviation is informing the media about the Ahmedabad Air India aircraft accident in which 270 people lost their lives. Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu started his address, expressing condolences to those who lost their lives and described the accident as a tragedy.
Sameer Kumar Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, says, “At around 2 pm on June 12, we received information that the plane going from Ahmedabad to Gatwick London has crashed.
He said that this aircraft flew at 1:39 pm and after reaching a height of about 650 feet in a few seconds, it started drowning, that is, its height started decreasing. At 1:39 pm, the pilot informed Ahmedabad ATC that this is May Day, that is, it is completely emergency.
According to the ATC, when he tried to contact the aircraft, he received no response. Exactly 1 minute later the aircraft crashed in Medhaninagar, which is located at a distance of 150 feet. About 2 km from the airport. The aircraft captain Sumit Sabharwal and the first officer Clive Sundar.
As far as the entire history of the aircraft is concerned, before the accident, the aircraft completed the Paris-Delhi-Ahmedabad sector without any accident. The runway was closed at 2:30 pm due to the accident and after completing all the protocols, the runway of Ahmedabad was opened for limited flights from 5 pm. “
Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu says, “The last two days have been very difficult. The accident near Ahmedabad Airport shook the whole country. My deep condolences to all the families who lost their loved ones in this accident … I have personally gone to the spot, so that I could see what should be done, what should be done and the same was the case of the Gujarat government.
The Government of India and other people of the ministry also had the same attitude. When we reached the spot, we saw that the response teams of all concerned departments were working on the ground, trying to defend whatever was possible, trying to reduce the fire and remove the debris, so that the bodies could be sent to the hospital as soon as possible. The aircraft accident bureau, which was specially activated to investigate the incidents, accidents around the aircraft, was immediately activated.
A significant update from the technical investigation through AAIB is the recovery of the black box from the scene around 5 pm tomorrow, the AAIB team believes that this decoding of the black box is going to give deep information. Information about what exactly would have happened during the accident process or in the moments before the accident. We are also eagerly waiting for whether the results or reports will be revealed after a complete investigation by AAIB … “
The main points of the ministry’s briefing are as follows.
A few seconds before the accident, the AI171 aircraft had lost contact with the air traffic control of Ahmedabad Airport.
-Pilot’s last message was “Mede”.
-A high level committee has been formed to investigate the cause of the accident.
-Viman’s black box has been found and the report is being awaited for further information.
#WATCH | #AhmedabadPlaneCrash | Delhi: Samir Kumar Sinha, Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, says “On 12th June around 2PM, we received the information that the plane going from Ahmedabad to Gatwick London had crashed. We immediately got detailed information about this… pic.twitter.com/AtrriJeCQn
– years (@ani) June 14, 2025