In the blue skies above western India, flight AI171 was struggling to gain altitude.

The London-bound plane had barely left the runway at Ahmedabad airport before it was careening back to earth.

In a video, the aircraft is seen slowly sinking behind residential buildings, before a huge fireball blasts upward.

It is also not clear if others – on the street, or in the hostel – were killed when the plane came crashing down.

The Federation of All India Medical Association reported that between 50 and 60 students have been hospitalized after the aircraft crashed into the hostel at BJ Medical College and Hospital. They also stated that four or five students are unaccounted for, while another two or three are receiving intensive care treatment.

Is this the deadliest air crash of the 21st century?

If the majority of the other passengers are found to have perished, this incident would become the deadliest aviation disaster globally since 2014. That year, the MH17 flight was shot down over eastern Ukraine, resulting in the deaths of all 298 passengers onboard, which included several Australians.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the event as “heartbreaking beyond words” and assured that he is coordinating with the involved authorities to manage the disaster. The crash occurred in Gujarat, a western region of India where Modi was born and where he served as the chief minister from 2001 to 2014.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes were “devastating.” His foreign minister, David Lammy, said the United Kingdom had activated a crisis team in both India’s capital, New Delhi, and in London.

While the authorities’ immediate focus is on confirming the number of casualties and providing support to the victims’ families, attention will soon turn to what caused the crash.

Investigators will focus on whether human error, mechanical failure, poor maintenance, or a combination of those factors, played a part in a the crash.

Last year, a whistleblower claimed that Boeing was taking shortcuts in its manufacturing of the 787-Dreamliner model, claims disputed and described as “inaccurate” by Boeing. The Federal Aviation Administration in the US is investigating the whistleblower’s formal complaint.

Shares in Boeing tanked by more than 7 per cent in pre-market trade today. Stocks in many other airlines also fell.

For Boeing, the crash is the latest in a series of incidents that have shaken consumers’ fears in the safety of its aircraft.

For Air India, the crash will likely damage a years-long effort to overturn its image as a struggling, debt-ridden airline to a safe, modern carrier appealing to India’s burgeoning middle class.

Air India last suffered a crash this deadly in 2010, when 158 people were killed after one of its jets overshot a runway in southern India.