Ahmedabad: The Air India flight that crashed near Ahmedabad on Thursday, killing or injuring scores of people, had faced serious technical issues just six months earlier, media reports have revealed.

Flight AI-171, operating the Ahmedabad–London Gatwick route, was grounded in December 2024 due to a major technical snag, leaving nearly 300 passengers stranded at the time. The incident had sparked criticism over maintenance lapses and flight safety procedures, although the aircraft was later cleared to resume operations.

The aircraft was introduced in 2009, and more than 1,000 have been delivered to dozens of airlines, according to the flightradar24 website.

On Thursday afternoon, the same Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed shortly after take-off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, plunging into the densely populated Meghani Nagar area around 1:43 p.m., just five minutes after departure.

The flight was carrying 244 people, including 232 passengers and 12 crew members. The plane was carrying 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian, Air India said.

The last major passenger plane crash in India was in 2020 when an Air India Express Boeing 737 skidded off a hilltop runway in southern India, killing 21 people.

The worst air disaster in India was on Nov. 12, 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight collided midair with a Kazakhstan Airlines Flight near Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 on board the two planes.