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Air India Plane Crashes in India Soon After Takeoff, At Least 290 Killed; 700 U.S. Marines Expected to Be Deployed to L.A. By Tomorrow. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 12, 2025 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[14:01:02]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We have breaking news out of India. Local officials say at least one passenger survived today's plane crash that reportedly killed at least 290 people. What we know about the Air India flight that went down just seconds after it took off.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And we're following the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles that are now spreading to other cities across the country. We're going to take a look at how the unrest and President Trump's immigration crackdown are affecting businesses and their workers. And we're taking a closer look at new polling, showing how Americans are feeling about this crackdown. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

We are following breaking news on this deadly plane crash in India. A health official there confirming to CNN, at least 290 people have died after a commercial airliner crashed just moments after takeoff. The death toll includes most of the 242 people onboard the plane, as well as people in a medical building that the Air India jet slammed into in the western city of Ahmedabad. Officials say at least one passenger survived and were told he's a British national who is being treated at an area hospital.

The crash was caught on camera. We do want to warn you, the video may be distressing. Here it shows the plane losing altitude just after takeoff, falling there, falling from the sky. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashing, igniting a fireball, and causing a chaotic scene on the ground. It shows rescue crews and residents using hoses to douse the flames and search for survivors. This Air India flight had just taken off from India's western city of Ahmedabad and was bound for London's Gatwick Airport. Let's go now to Nada Bashir, who was at Gatwick. Nada, what more are you learning?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're here at the airport where that plane should have landed just in the last hour. And it's here at Gatwick Airport that authorities have set up what has been described as a reception center for relatives, family members, and friends of those who were onboard that flight before it fatally crashed just shortly after takeoff. And as you can imagine, this is a huge moment of anguish for so many of those relatives and friends, waiting for further updates and for confirmation around the condition of their loved ones.

Of course, as you mentioned, the vast majority of the 242 passengers and crew member onboard that flight, according to local officials, are believed to have been killed. Remarkably, we now have confirmation that there was at least one survivor who has been identified as a British national. It is, of course, understood that investigators will be keen to speak to this one survivor to learn more about what took place on the flight prior to the crash.

And at this stage, it's unclear the total number of casualties or whether perhaps any other survivors may have been recovered from the debris of the plane. Important to underscore of course, that we are not just talking about the destruction of the actual plane itself, but the residential area where the crash took place. And of course, it's understood that the plane impacted a hostel for medical students at a nearby medical college directly. And we've been hearing from officials from this medical college who have said that dozens were injured and taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, but at least three are believed to have been killed.

Three medical students and others are said to be in intensive care. And as you mentioned, we have had that updated death toll, including both passengers and crew on the plane and those in the local area according to a doctor at the local hospital, which has been receiving those injured and of course, the bodies recovered from the wreckage.

[14:05:00]

At this stage, 294 people are believed to have been killed. And of course, this is now becoming a multinational investigation given the fact that there were both Indian, British, Portuguese and Canadian nationals onboard that flight. And we have confirmation now that both the United Kingdom and the United States will be providing assistance in sending investigating teams to India to provide support on that front. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, Nada Bashir, thank you so much for that report. Let's get some analysis now on this. We are joined by CNN Transportation Analyst and former Inspector General at the Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo, and also Commercial Airline Pilot, Josh Schirard. Josh, you've seen this video, and plane, it looks -- it's almost as if it's -- it looks the way it would be landing, right? But obviously, it should not be, it should be gaining altitude. What do you think about what you were seeing?

JOSH SCHIRARD, COMMERCIAL AIRLINE PILOT: Yeah, this video and the CCTV video that we've recently seen too, really gives us a good idea and helps us delineate, one, the things that we do know and don't know to lead the investigation from. Clearly, what we're seeing here is we don't have any kind of catastrophic malfunction where there is a wing falling off, a large explosion. So what we're seeing is the plane is actually continuing to try to pull up. So we see that angle of attack continuing to increase throughout the takeoff, telling us that there was an issue with power and/or lift, which is what caused that plane to eventually sink and crash.

So now, we're looking at one of really three routes. One, we have some sort of engine malfunction which wouldn't produce enough power to get that plane to continue to climb, or looking at an overweight issue, which once again just didn't allow that airspeed to continue to allow the plane to climb. Or unfortunately, we may be looking at a pilot error, something that was going on in a cockpit that once again, didn't give that plane enough power and enough speed to continue to climb. And we went into a stall by exceeding the critical angle of attack and unfortunately, landed back on the ground.

SANCHEZ: Mary, what do you make of those scenarios? What are your impressions as we watch that footage?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, I agree with the scenarios, and of course, there's always the possibility because I had worked on the Boeing 737 Max, ability of some kind of a control issue, control failure, computer failure. But this aircraft is just the most modern, most advanced in the world. It has not one flight management system, but three, one that's active, one for a backup, one for a spare. It has another system called the common core system, which coordinates all the different controls, et cetera.

So, if there was some kind of a failure in that, in addition to the three scenarios that the captain just mentioned, that would be another one that I would add. The second video that has surfaced, I mean, there's no indication of bird strikes because often that's an issue on takeoff when you're low and slow and still climbing out. And I'm sure the captain looked and I looked really hard to see if the Ram air turbine, which is an automatic turbine that will automatically deploy usually underneath the plane to give it some hydraulic power, some electrical power, some additional power to keep the instruments going, and I didn't see that either.

So whatever happened was very, very fast. And the pilot was able to get this alleged mayday call out, which perhaps has more information.

KEILAR: And so Mary, is this investigation is going to be taking place and the NTSB says it has a team of U.S. investigators heading to India to assist. You have different nationals on this plane, four different countries. How is this going to play out? What are they going to look for?

SCHIAVO: Well, fortunately, or rather unfortunately, through lots of experience in the past and by treaties and operation of law, how the investigation in international air crash works is very well established. India is the lead investigation, the host investigation agency. It has already put out the usual invitations to participate in the investigation. Boeing will be a party because it manufactured the plane. General Electric will be a party because it manufactured the engines in the United States.

And then I think, I haven't heard that they've been invited yet, but Rockwell Collins, which did the avionics, the flight controller systems, and a lot of the really important electronics and computer systems in the plane, and that will be from the United States. Of course, Britain will be a party because it was headed to Britain. And then nations where there are -- its nationals are on the plane are often also invited. And so, there will be just a wealth of experience and abilities.

[14:10:00]

And India may request the NTSB to use its download lab for the black boxes just out of Washington, D.C. But India is an aviation nation and very experienced, and they will have experts that could do that also.

SANCHEZ: On one hand, Josh, you have Mary describing this as one of the most advanced aircraft in the world. And on the other hand, you have the last, I don't know, 15 months or so of controversies for Boeing. How much scrutiny are they under right now? What questions do you have for the company?

SCHIRARD: Well, obviously, they're going to be under an incredible amount of scrutiny moving forward and they have been in the past several years with the incidents that have kind of piled up on Boeing. And not only are we seeing that the lack of confidence in the stock market and in some of the more formal theaters, but we're also seeing it with the lack of confidence in the American public. I mean, they are constantly looking at, is it safe to fly? I mean, we fly 787s here in the U.S. It's a very common wide-body aircraft that flies internationally.

So I think here, moving forward, we're going to see a wane in some of those ticket purchases for the Boeing aircraft in general, and especially the 87 until we get more concrete answers about was this a mechanical malfunction? Was this an aircraft malfunction? Or was it pilot error? So moving forward, we really need to start answering those questions quickly. We always say that we don't want to speculate, we want to wait for full investigation, but we really kind of -- our goals are bifurcated where we have to come up with some answers quickly in order to assure the American public and the world public that it's safe to fly. And then, we can start to get more concrete answers as we move forward.

SANCHEZ: Josh Schirard, Mary Schiavo, great to get your point of view. Thank you both for joining us.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We want to give you a look at the situation on the ground at the crash site. Let's turn now to Arunima. She is a News Editor for CNN News 18 in India.

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ARUNIMA, NEWS EDITOR, CNN NEWS 18: This was a medical college. This was a hostile mess. And you can see, right on the roof of the hostile mess, the tail end of the aircraft is still stuck. That is where the aircraft first crashed outside. This is not even -- as the crow flies, it's not even half a mile. It might have taken less than a minute and a half for the aircraft to reach here from the airport. There's also a first responder, somebody who operates the ambulance services. This is a medical college campus. I will try and see if they can tell us. If you can tell us exactly what happened, what did you see?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suddenly, we got a call at 1:41 minutes that some something has crashed near our office, 200 meters, 300 meters away from our center hospital. Our supervisor and our team rushed to the scene and they found that airplane is crashed, but we didn't identify it is passenger or someone other plane crashed. Then we found that it's the passenger plane.

ARUNIMA: And you rescued people from the hostel also, at least 25 people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, 20, 25 people rescued from the hostel.

ARUNIMA: Right. So that's an important point because what we are talking about in terms of casualty is not just the crew members and the passengers of the aircraft, but also those who were undergraduate doctors inside this medical college. They were here to have their lunch. And I just want to quickly show you how far the debris have been flung apart. This is the second part of the plane, which is on the front side of the hostel building. And then just beyond that, perhaps you can see, my video journalist zooming in on the remains of the luggage. That's all that remains off of this air crash.

All of these debris, just span that side, these are the debris outside the medical college hostile mess. And for the next half a kilometer or so, which is about one-fourth of a mile, this is all that you're seeing. Debris and parts of the Indian Airlines aircraft that crashed. And even as I'm speaking to you, maybe in the ambience, you can hear that's another aircraft which has taken off from the Ahmedabad Airport. So the sound is quite loud because it's just outside the airport wall.

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SANCHEZ: Wow. Really, a widespread and eye-opening scene there. Our thanks to our Arunima there in India for us. Still to come on "CNN News Central," the anti-ICE protests are spreading beyond Los Angeles and the immigration crackdown is taking a toll on local businesses. We'll discuss next

KEILAR: Plus, as U.S. Iran nuclear talks resume this weekend, President Trump warns of the possibility of massive conflict in the Middle East. So, what does that mean? Well, that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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[14:19:12]

SANCHEZ: Happening now. U.S. Northern Command says that about 700 U.S. Marines have finished their training and will soon be deployed to Los Angeles possibly by tomorrow. Here you can see images of the Marines preparing ahead of their arrival. They're set to join more than 4,000 National Guard troops mobilized by President Trump to enforce his immigration crackdown. Just moments ago, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, spoke to reporters about the ICE raids taking place in L.A. Listen to this.

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KRISTI NOEM, (R) UNITED STATES HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: As our law enforcement officers have been assaulted, they've been pelted with rocks and bricks. Their cars have been set on fire. Molotov cocktails have been used. We have seen people throw bottles and hammers at them. We've also seen that they have been attacked and verbally spit on or punched or assaulted, and it's just not acceptable.

[14:20:00]

The Department of Homeland Security and the officers and the agencies and the departments and the military people that are working on this operation will continue to sustain and increase our operations in this city. We are not going away.

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SANCHEZ: Joining us now to discuss the impact the immigration crackdown is having on businesses in Los Angeles is Carlos Gonzalez. He's the owner of CNS Services Corporation. Carlos, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. I wonder, given what's been happening in your community, of course, whether you saw this sort of reaction coming from folks in your neighborhood?

CARLOS GONZALEZ, OWNER, CNS SERVICES CORPORATION: Well, it's -- I guess, it's a response that was -- that obviously, we don't condone any violence, but when you're technically being kidnapped, when you know these ICE engines are not representing themselves or not identifying themselves as such, they're just showing up. They're just -- yesterday, we saw a few cars being pit maneuvered and just blocked off, and coming out of the vehicles with masks. I mean, what kind of response do you -- do these people believe that we're going to have, that we're just going to come out outside and start praying?

These are things that are automatically going to trigger a defense mechanism when our community is being attacked. For example, right now, in the Fashion District, we got a source, anonymous source that sent the information that they were going to conduct raid in seven businesses in the Fashion District. Right now, the Fashion District, I was just there. I'm currently going to another site. It's starting to look like a ghost town. Around 10:00 a.m., everybody started shutting down because of fears of them coming in. And they're not -- they're literally just coming in and grabbing anybody that looks Latino and that amount of fear is going to create some response, which is potentially not going to look as positive as it is. But, it's simply a survival mechanism.

Our community is standing together. Our community is starting to speak up a lot. A lot of different people are using their platforms. But it's just -- it's just not enough. And it's -- if, for example, they were to identify themselves accordingly, if they're going after criminals, well, let that be, go after criminals. But that's not the reality. Yesterday, in Downey, there was a lot of churches that got raided and it's not, OK, we're coming for this individual. They're literally circling around the areas and taking anybody that is Latino, whether they have documents or not, because we've seen a lot of documented people, people that have real IDs and as it is, to take out a real ID, it's not an easy process. You have to take so many documentation that's proved just to get that ID out.

And people with real IDs are being taken in, and that -- even though they're being released within a couple of days, within a couple of weeks, that trauma that that individual along with their children is something that is going to stay with them for a long time. And it's not something that is going to create a respectful environment for authorities because we here in America are not used to that. It's something that shouldn't -- we're being chased down, literally, like dogs out of Home Depots, out of churches.

Yesterday, a group of ladies, I believe it was five ladies around in Downey area, they were able to stand ground and the ICE agents let go one individual that they had circled around with three vans, four trucks. There was about 20 guys. It was only one Hispanic on a bike. And thankfully, there was about four or five ladies that were filming everything, that were responding to the ICE agents. And thankfully, they let that person go. But if those people were not filming, were not live, were not reporting it, I'm sure that individual would've been -- end up being taken.

And to my point as to how much the fear is being infused into our community and it's for no reason, it's literally simply to inflame an already, a situation that -- it's already at a peak point where they're pushing people to react in this way purposely. And we're simply trying to protect our communities. We're simply trying to protect our families. We're simply trying to -- a lot of people say the American dream is dead, but -- and the reality is, we are here trying to achieve that. That's the only thing that we're trying to do, is we're trying to support our communities. We're trying to support our families. We're trying to support our businesses. Like I said, in the Fashion District, I had to close my business and that affects -- I keep on getting a lot of messages from boutiques.

It's like, are you guys going to be able to get my orders out? And how -- what am I going to tell them? Well, let me ask ICE if they're going to be able to allow the UPS truck, or if they're going to be able to allow a delivery van that just because the driver is Latino, come in, so that they could take these boxes out? It's like that conversation now is creating a lot of friction.

[14:25:00]

It is creating a lot of -- a huge economical impact. And it's not being understood. But for example, I heard in the farms and hotels, all of a sudden, when this administration's pockets gets affected, now they're going to review it and possibly pull back. Well, I do want to speak out about the fashion industry here, the Fashion District. This is a huge, a huge economic impact when we cannot operate. Boutiques nationwide, businesses nationwide depend on the Fashion District. And if we continue to get impacted, if we continue to get attacked and our community continues to get attacked like the way it is, it's going to have a domino effect in the economy, which they're not paying attention to.

They're not paying attention to a lot of the things that are coming out as far as them pulling back with farms, them pulling back with hotels, is because they're biggest Trump supporters were actually the ones that are calling, but they're not listening to any of us. They're not listening to any of us because all they see is, oh, we -- the community used profanity and majority of the time those are not even immigrants. I want to make that very clear. The people that are agitating, the people that are actually causing all of this harm, a lot of them are not even Hispanic. A lot of them are not immigrants. Majority of them, if not everybody, is a citizen because I know firsthand --

SANCHEZ: Sure.

GONZALEZ: -- being, and growing up an illegal, we are definitely in fear of even responding negatively in case you get a traffic stop. If you get a ticket, you have to shut up because otherwise, you might be in trouble. So, people that are illegal are not in these -- in the protests, like creating the riots, creating the problem.

SANCHEZ: That's a really interesting point.

GONZALEZ: It's all, majority of them are going to be citizens.

SANCHEZ: Sure. Carlos Gonzalez, that's all we have time for, but we very much appreciate you coming on to share your point of view. Thanks for joining us.

GONZALEZ: Thank you for having me. Have an amazing day.

SANCHEZ: You too. When we come back, officials say 290 people, at least 290 have perished after an Air India flight crashed right after takeoff. What the timeline of the crash could signal to investigators next.

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