List of Major Air India Disasters
Air India, the flag carrier of India, spawned civil aviation in the country when its first flight took to the skies in 1932. Since then the airline has expanded its operations to various destinations across the globe, including Europe, Australia, Asia, the United States, and Canada.
Although its legacy includes milestones in Indian aviation, its history has been marked by a number of tragic air disasters. This list outlines the major disasters involving Air India over the decades, examining their causes—including technical failures, human error, and terrorism—and their broader significance.
Air India flight 171 crash
- Date: June 12, 2025
- Aircraft: Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
- Fatalities: 241 of 242 on board (does not include deaths on the ground)
Headed for London, the flight reportedly lost altitude moments after taking off from Ahmedabad and crashed into a medical college hostel nearby, causing an explosion. Air India confirmed that 241 of the 242 people on board had died, and a sole survivor escaped the wreckage. Deaths and injuries on the ground were also reported at the crash site. Officials could not immediately determine the cause of the crash. It is the first fatal crash involving a Boeing 787, though a number of safety issues related to the aircraft had been previously reported worldwide. The incident was also Air India’s first crash since the Tata Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, acquired the airline in 2022.
Air India Express flight 1344 crash
- Date: August 7, 2020
- Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
- Fatalities: 21 of 190 on board
The crash involved a flight operated by Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India. Amid torrential monsoon rains, strong tailwinds, and low visibility at the hilly airport in Kozhikode, the pilot reportedly aborted landing twice before touching down too far along the runway on the third attempt. The plane skidded and overran the wet runway, hurtled into a valley, and split in two. The final death toll stood at 21, including the two pilots.
Air India Express flight 812 crash
- Date: May 22, 2010
- Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
- Fatalities: 158 of 166 on board
Attempting to land at the hilltop airport in Mangalore (now Mangaluru), the flight, coming from Dubai, overshot the runway, caught fire, and plunged into a gorge. The captain had reportedly ignored warnings from the copilot to abort the landing attempt and continued on a faulty landing trajectory that resulted in the accident. Only eight passengers survived.
Air India flight 182 (Emperor Kanishka) bombing
- Date: June 23, 1985
- Location: Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Ireland
- Aircraft: Boeing 747-237B
- Fatalities: 329 (all on board)
The passenger jet Emperor Kanishka was on the Montreal-London leg of its journey to Bombay (now Mumbai) when a bomb hidden in the plane’s cargo exploded mid-flight off the coast of Ireland. The bombing was attributed to Sikh extremists amid political unrest in India. It remains the deadliest aviation disaster in Air India’s history and was the most lethal act of aviation terrorism before the attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States.
Air India flight 403 (Gauri Shankar) crash
- Date: June 21, 1982
- Location: Bombay, India
- Aircraft: Boeing 707
- Fatalities: 17 of 111 on board (does not include deaths on the ground)
In the wee hours of the night, the Bombay-bound flight, coming from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, flew into heavy rainfall and strong winds, leading to reduced visibility. In the rough landing, the plane bounced on the tarmac and careered off the runway. The body of the plane sustained severe damage before it crashed into a wall and split into three pieces. The crash may have resulted from aerodynamic instability owing to the rainstorm, equipment malfunction, or the pilot misjudging the landing spot. Of the 111 people on board, 15 passengers and 2 crew members died. Fatalities on the ground added 41 people to the death toll. Gauri Shankar was the first Boeing jet aircraft Air India purchased, in 1960.
Air India flight 224 (Kamet) hijacking
- Date: November 25, 1981
- Location: Mahé Island, Seychelles
- Aircraft: Boeing 707
- Fatalities: none
En route from Zambia to Bombay, the flight was refueling on Mahé when it was hijacked by 47 armed militants from Swaziland (now Eswatini), who took 65 passengers and 13 crew members hostage. The hijackers demanded the pilot fly them to Durban, South Africa. There, following lengthy negotiations, the hijackers surrendered, and all hostages were freed. This was the first hijacking of an Indian aircraft on foreign soil.
Air India flight 855 (Emperor Ashoka) crash
- Date: January 1, 1978
- Location: Arabian Sea, near Bombay, India
- Aircraft: Boeing 747
- Fatalities: 213 (all on board)
Nicknamed the Emperor Ashoka, it was the first Boeing jumbo jet Air India had purchased, in 1970. It took wing from Bombay at night on New Year’s Day. Set to fly to Dubai, the pilot banked right following takeoff, and the wings were leveled thereafter. However, an instrumentation failure indicated that the aircraft was still banking to the right, and this led the pilot to keep banking left, thinking that he was still leveling the aircraft, causing the plane to nosedive into the sea, just off the Bombay coast. There were no survivors.
Air India flight 101 (Kanchenjunga) crash
- Date: January 24, 1966
- Location: Mont Blanc, France
- Aircraft: Boeing 707
- Fatalities: 117 (all on board)
Flying from Bombay to New York via Beirut, Geneva, and London, the Kanchenjunga was carrying 106 passengers, including physicist Homi Bhabha, the progenitor of India’s nuclear energy program, and a crew of 11. Reports from the time suggested that the captain may have mistakenly presumed that the plane had already passed Mont Blanc, partly owing to a faulty radio navigation system, and begun its descent to Geneva, crashing into the side of the mountain instead—not far from where the Malabar Princess had crashed 16 years before. All passengers and crew were killed.
Air India flight 300 (Kashmir Princess) bombing
- Date: April 11, 1955
- Location: South China Sea, near Natuna Islands, Indonesia
- Aircraft: Lockheed L-749A Constellation
- Fatalities: 16 of 19 on board
The flight had been chartered to fly Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and other officials from Hong Kong to Djakarta (now Jakarta), where they were to attend a conference. However, having possibly been informed of an attempt on his life, Zhou did not board the flight. Only junior staff and international journalists were on board when a bomb exploded mid-flight, and the plane caught fire. The Kashmir Princess crashed into the South China Sea, killing all on board, except three crew members.
Air India flight 245 (Malabar Princess) crash
- Date: November 3, 1950
- Location: Mont Blanc, France
- Aircraft: Lockheed L-749 Constellation
- Fatalities: 48 (all on board)
The Malabar Princess was scheduled to travel from Bombay to London, with stopovers in Cairo and Geneva. During its descent to Geneva, the aircraft crashed into Mont Blanc in a storm. All 48 people on board—40 passengers and 8 crew members—died. A rescue mission discovered the wreckage two days later.
1947 Korangi Creek crash
- Date: December 27, 1947
- Aircraft: Douglas C-48C (DC-3)
- Fatalities: 23 (all on board)
The incident was the first documented plane crash of an Indian flight. The aircraft, operated by Air-India Limited, was headed from Karachi, Pakistan, to Bombay. It crashed shortly after takeoff, possibly as a result of instrument failure and poor visibility. All 19 passengers and 4 crew members died.