Investigators have started combing the wreckage of Air India flight AI171 as they seek to determine what caused the Boeing Co. Dreamliner to crash shortly after takeoff Thursday afternoon, killing all but one of the 242 people aboard in the deadliest aviation accident in more than a decade. 

On Friday morning, one of the two so-called black boxes, which contain critical evidence of a plane’s final minutes, was located, according to the Hindustan Times. The report didn’t specify which of the flight data or cockpit voice recorder was recovered. 

The accident site is a scene of total devastation, with burnt debris and scattered aircraft parts still smoldering. The BJ Medical Hostel, where medical students were dining at the time of the accident, has been severely damaged, with four tower blocks half-burnt and blackened. Firefighters continue to spray water on the site, while police and officials work to clear the wreckage.

The focus yesterday was on rescue efforts, while the search for material evidence starts today, said a senior official from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau of India, who asked not to be named discussing private matters.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi briefly visited the crash site on Friday morning. 

Questions are growing over how and why the 787-8 Dreamliner, bound for London, exploded into a huge fireball just minutes after takeoff. Video footage shared on social media showed a plume of smoke at the crash site. The miraculous survival of one passenger, Ramesh Vishwaskumar is also unexplained. Vishwaskumar, who was seated in the first row of economy class, may be able to offer valuable clues as to what caused the accident.

Officials on Thursday said that emergency responders had recovered more than 200 bodies, though they didn’t immediately say how many were passengers, crew or area residents. They said the toll could rise as emergency workers comb through the wreckage. 

The flight to London’s Gatwick airport was carrying 12 crew and 230 passengers, most of whom were Indian and British nationals.

The 787 Dreamliner appeared to not achieve sufficient thrust as it lumbered down nearly the full length of an 11,000-foot runway, a distance that should have been more than enough to take off, said Bob Mann, head of aviation consultant RW Mann & Co.   

That could stem from a misconfiguration of the plane prior to takeoff or erroneous weight data entered into the plane’s computer system that determines how much power is needed to get off the ground, he said. Mann cautioned that his views were unofficial and not corroborated by data or cockpit voice recorders, which have yet to be recovered from the site. 

“If the weight is high compared to the actual number, you end up with a very aggressive takeoff,” Mann said. “If the weight is low compared to the actual, you end up with not enough commanded power.”

The pilots in command issued a mayday call immediately after takeoff to air traffic controllers, according to India’s civil aviation regulator. The aircraft was in the command of captain Sumeet Sabharwal and first officer Clive Kundar, who had 8,200 flying hours and 1,100 flying hours of experience, respectively, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

According to air traffic control data, the jet departed from Ahmedabad at 1:39 p.m. local time using runway 23. After the initial mayday call, there was no response from the cockpit to subsequent calls made by controllers on the ground.

The accident extends a series of serious and fatal incidents in the civil aviation industry this year, including a midair collision in Washington early in 2025 between a military helicopter and an aircraft. 

Thursday’s crash marks the first-ever complete loss of a 787, a plane Boeing introduced more than a decade ago with advanced lightweight composite materials that improve fuel efficiency. The 787 has become a crucial source of revenue for Boeing, with 1,148 of the jets in service globally.

Boeing chief executive officer Kelly Ortberg said in a statement Thursday that he has spoken to Air India chairman N. Chandrasekaran and that Boeing is ready to support the investigation. Ortberg and Boeing commercial aircraft head Stephanie Pope cancelled their plans to attend the upcoming Paris Air Show, according to a company memo seen by Bloomberg News.

Among the 242 people on board, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were British citizens, one 1 was Canadian and seven Portuguese, according to Air India.

Based on the number of people on board, this is the worst commercial airline crash since Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014, which was shot down over Ukraine, killing 298 people, according to Aviation Safety Network, which tracks fatal crashes. The last crash of this magnitude for Air India was Flight 182 in 1985. That Boeing 747 aircraft was destroyed by a bomb over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 people on board.

Boeing has been involved in several accidents in recent years, including two fatal crashes with Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019. Early last year, a nearly-new 737 Max aircraft lost a door panel during flight. While there were no fatalities, the accident plunged the company into a deep crisis.

Under international rules for aviation crash investigations—known as “Annex 13”—a probe is led by air safety authorities in the country where the crash occurred, with assistance from other countries. Investigators typically issue a preliminary report within a few weeks. A final report, which includes safety recommendations, is then released a year to two later. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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The “unsustainable” rising costs of operating from Singapore’s Changi airport were partly to blame for the closure of Qantas Airways Ltd.’s low-cost subsidiary Jetstar Asia, executives said.

The decision to shut down operations — and cut some 500 jobs — comes as losses mount for the Jetstar brand’s Singapore-based offshoot, which had only been profitable in the six of the 21 years. Higher airport fees imposed by Changi to fund a $3 billion Singapore dollars ($2.3 billion) facility upgrade kicked in on April 1.

Cost increases have been seen across “the whole ecosystem we operate out of,” Jetstar Group Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Tully told reporters at a briefing Wednesday. “The airport fees are a part of that. That has had an impact on the business.”

Jetstar Asia will stop operating July 31, enabling Qantas to free up as much as $500 million Australian dollars ($327 million) in capital to fund the group’s fleet renewal program, Qantas said in a statement earlier Wednesday. Thirteen Jetstar Asia Airbus SE A320 aircraft will be redeployed to Australia and New Zealand, creating 100 jobs locally.  

Qantas Chief Executive Officer Vanessa Hudson is prioritizing the group’s cash cow, the Australian domestic network, as she juggles assets to pay for the biggest plane order in the airline’s history. Qantas has firm orders for almost 200 new aircraft.

Jetstar Asia, which is 49% owned by Qantas, is expected to post a $35 million Australian dollars underlying operating loss this financial year in the face of intensifying competition and rising costs, Qantas’s statement said. The closure will result in a one-off impact of $175 million Australian dollars.

Jetstar Asia’s end will also leave Singapore Airlines Group carriers as the only ones based in the city-state, though plenty of competing foreign airlines remain — some of which jostled with Jetstar Asia on its routes.

Changi said that while it was “disappointed” with Jetstar Asia’s decision to exit Singapore, it respected the company’s commercial considerations.

“Our immediate priority is to ensure passengers are well supported and to minimise disruption during the transition period,” the airport group told Bloomberg in an emailed statement.

Changi said it would work with airline partners to restore connectivity on the four routes which are exclusively operated by Jetstar Asia – Australia’s Broome, Indonesia’s Labuan Bajo, Japan’s Okinawa and China’s Wuxi.

Singapore labor union chief Ng Chee Meng wrote in a Facebook post that it was exploring opportunities for Singapore Airlines Group to match impacted Jetstar Asia employees to suitable roles.

Jetstar Asia launched in 2004 and grew to become the third-largest carrier operating out of Changi, data from aviation data firm Cirium show — trailing Singapore Airlines Ltd. and its low-cost unit Scoot. 

As of June, Jetstar Asia offered just under 31,000 seats one-way for sale per week, or less than 4% of total seats available at Changi. Only 16 intra-Asia routes will be impacted by the Jetstar Asia closure. Australia-based Jetstar Airways and Jetstar Japan services into Asia are unchanged.

Jetstar Asia will operate flights on a progressively reduced schedule before its final day of operation on July 31.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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