Shocking moment students dangle from a balcony and use tied up bed sheets to escape from Air India crash inferno

Shocking new footage shows students dangling from balconies and shimmying down tied-up bed sheets to escape the inferno caused by the deadly Air India crash. 

Last week, India suffered one one the worst aviation disasters in its history after 241 people on the plane including the pilots and crew died as the Gatwick-bound Air India AI171 failed just seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad, western India.

Dozens more were killed after the plane crashed into a densely populated part of the city, with doctors saying that nearly 280 bodies have so far been recovered. 

The plane crashed into an accommodation block for a medical college, and new footage shared by local media showed students frantically trying to escape the multi-storey building. 

As thick, acrid smoke from flight AI171 towers above the city, students were seem screaming as the clambered down the makeshift ropes. 

Those already on the ground bravely climbed up trees to give directions to the escaping students. 

Only one passenger, British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, survived the crash. 

Authorities investigating the deadly Air India crash are studying the black boxes of the plane, and are looking at whether it was overloaded and if the pilots were properly trained.  

New footage shared by local media showed students frantically trying to escape the multi-storey building

Last week, India suffered one one the worst aviation disasters in its history after 241 people on the plane including the pilots and crew died as the Gatwick-bound Air India AI171 failed just seconds after taking off

Experts from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are probing the crash with assistance from the UK, the US and officials from Boeing.

Amit Singh, a former pilot and an aviation expert, said the recovery of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, or black boxes, are crucial to piece together the sequence of events.

The cockpit voice recorder records pilots’ conversation, emergency alarms and any distress signal made before a crash. 

The plane’s digital flight data recorder stores information related to engine and control settings. Both devices are designed to survive a crash.

‘The data will reveal everything,’ Singh said, adding that the technical details could be corroborated by the cockpit voice recorder that would help investigators know of any communication between air traffic control and the pilots.

India’s aviation regulatory body has said pilots Sumeet Sabharwal and Clive Kunder made a mayday call before the crash. 

Singh said the investigating authorities will scan CCTV footage of the nearby area and speak with witnesses to get to the root cause of the crash.

Additionally, Singh said, the investigators will also study the pilot training records, total load of the aircraft, thrust issues related to the plane’s engine, as well as its worthiness in terms of past performances and any previously reported issues.

Dabu Patni cries upon hearing the news of her brother Akash Patni, who died when the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025

People look at the debris of an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad of India’s Gujarat state, June 12, 2025

Aurobindo Handa, former director general of India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, said the investigators across the world follow a standard UN-prescribed Manual of Accident Investigation, also called ‘DOC 9756,’ which outlines detailed procedures to arrive at the most probable cause of a crash. 

Handa said the investigation into last week’s crash would likely be a long process as the aircraft was badly charred. 

He added that ascertaining the condition of the black boxes recovered from the crash site was vital as the heat generated from the crash could be possibly higher than the bearable threshold of the device.

The Indian government has set up a separate, high-level committee to examine the causes leading to the crash and formulate procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future. 

The committee is expected to file a preliminary report within three months. 

Authorities have also begun inspecting and carrying out additional maintenance and checks of Air India’s entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners to prevent any future incident. Air India has 33 Dreamliners in its fleet. 

The plane that crashed was 12 years old. Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft. 

There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts.

People look at the debris of an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad of India’s Gujarat state

People look at the debris of an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad of India’s Gujarat state, June 12, 2025

Kalpeshbhai Patni, 28, mourns as he sits outside the postmortem room at a hospital, for his brother Akash Patni, 14, who died when the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane crashed

There were 53 British nationals on board Flight AI171 when it crashed into a residential area near the airport, as well as 159 Indian nationals, seven Portuguese citizens and a Canadian. 

Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday he hoped decoding the first black box, the flight data recorder, would ‘give an in-depth insight’ into the circumstances of the crash.