People stand next to a condolence banner as they wait for the body of Sumeet Sabharwal, a pilot who died when an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed during take-off from an airport, to be handed over to his family in Mumbai, India, June 17, 2025. REUTERS/Hemanshi Kamani

At least 270 died when the Air India flight crashed into the campus of a medical college in Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff on Thursday. Only one passenger among the 242 aboard survived.

The plane was 90 minutes into its flight from Hong Kong, when the pilots contacted air traffic controllers with an urgent request.

An Air India Boeing 787-8 flight headed for New Delhi returned to Hong Kong shortly after takeoff Monday because of a "technical issue," Indian media reported.

There have been cases of a very small number of survivors in very serious accidents, but it is "very rare" for there to be only one, a professor told Newsweek.

The Air India flight fell from the sky on Thursday and killed at least 270 people in Gujarat state, officials said Saturday.

Sumeet Sabharwal, who the Indian government has said had 8,200 flying hours of experience and was also an Air India instructor, was the commanding pilot of flight AI171. His co-pilot was Clive Kunder who had 1,100 hours of experience. Mr Sabharwal’s funeral took place in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Investigadores en India estudiaban las cajas negras de un Boeing 787 Dreamliner después de recuperarlas de los restos del avión