Semua Kabar

Debris of Air India flight 171 is pictured after it crashed Thursday in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad. Rescue teams with sniffer dogs combed the crash site on Friday.PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Imageshide caption

MUMBAI, India — India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has begun investigating Thursday's deadly Air India crash, one of the country's worst aviation accidents in decades, with assistance from the U.S.National Transportation Safety Boardand British investigators. Authorities said the plane's flight data recorder, or black box, was recovered from a rooftop at the crash site. "This marks an important step forward in the investigation. This will significantly aid the enquiry into the incident," the government's Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naiduposted Friday on X.

The passenger in seat 11A on Air India flight 171 was the only one to walk out of the burning rubble — the lone survivor of the London-bound flight that crashed into a medical college and burst into flames on Thursday, just after it departed from the airport in the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad, with 242 passengers and crew aboard.

Authorities said they were undertaking DNA testing to identify the remains of the victims,who were burnedbeyond recognition. Local media reported that so far,only six couldbe returned to their families.State-run mediareported that India's aviation watchdog, thedirectorate general of civil aviation, ordered Air India to undertake extra safety checks on its Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 planes "as a preventative measure."

The surviving passenger, 40-year-old British citizen Vishwaskumar Ramesh, was hospitalized withnon-life threatening injuries, shortly after he walked out of the crash site. In footage shared by local media, he was seen bloodied, dazed and clutching his mobile phone.

"I just walked out, innit," he told the Indian dailyThe Hindu. From his hospital bed, he told other media that after the plane crashed, he managed to push aside the emergency exit door. "I can't explain, it's a miracle, everything." He had been traveling with his brother, who was a few seats away andwas killed.

Other casualties included five medical students who'd gathered for lunch at a cafeteria when the plane hit. Also killed were bystanders — a 15-year-old boy who had deliveredlunch to his mother,who ran a nearby roadside stall, and a grandmother who was delivering packed lunches in the company of her 2-year-old granddaughter.

The people of the state of Gujarat, where Ahmedabad is the capital, have long sought their fortunes abroad, and it was clear in the roster of victims who'd been on the flight: a man whosurprised his fatherwith a visit over the Muslim holiday of Eid; another who was returning home after attending his father's funeral.There was asingle motherreturning to her nursing job in the U.K.

The victims also included one of the directors of an Indian company,Lubi Pumps,who was traveling with his wife to visit his sister in London. "It's a tragedy in how fragile life can be," his colleague Samir Desai told NPR. "There's no assurity about the next moment, what's going to happen."

The tragedy comes amid India's ambitions to be a global transportation hub, and as the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi builds airports across regional centers at breakneck speed. India recently became the world's third-largest domestic aviation market, according to state-runNews On Air,which cited data from the Official Airline Guide, a global travel data service which provides aviation analytics.

But Indian aviation safety expertAmit Singh,a former pilot, told NPR that even as the industry is expanding, the safety culture is lacking. "The main issue is the relationship with the regulators and the operator," Singh said. "There's a lack of trust."

"People who are in the safety [industry] were not surprised — because they were expecting something big to happen," Singh said of Thursday's accident. "Something … does not happen out of the blue, there are always precursors to it — you'll have small incidents, then major incidents, then a big accident."

He referred to aplane crash in India in 2020, when a plane skidded off a runway, killing 21 people, andaccidents at flight schools. "Then suddenly, you have this," he said.

Another aviation safety expert,Mohan Ranganathan, told NPR that many of India's airports did not comply with safety standards to ensure there are no large obstacles near airports. He referred to Thursday's accident, in which the plane crashed into a six-story building just seconds after takeoff. "Such a tall building, very close to the takeoff path, just 300 meters [980 feet] from the compound wall, may be a serious violation," he said.

Ranganathan accused India's aviation watchdog of giving "licenses without proper checking, and the [government run] airport authority keeps violating, because India has one of the weakest judiciaries as far as aviation safety is concerned. They'll never give a verdict against the government agencies."

"If this doesn't wake them up, nothing will. Mumbai is a time bomb waiting to happen," he said, referring to India's populous port megacity and financial capital, where part of the airport is ringed by densely populated informal settlements.

NPR reached out to India's civil aviation authority, the federal aviation minister, Air India and its corporate owners, the Tata Group, for comment on these allegations but did not receive a response.

Indian mediaquoted N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of the Tata Group,as saying,"We will be completely transparent about the findings."

Chandrasekaran said the company took "its responsibility to society seriously, and that includes being open about what occurred yesterday." The Tata Group also said it would provide more than $100,000 to the families of each victim, and offered to cover medical care for the wounded.

Reutersreported Friday that the Tata Group has faced repeated problems with Air India since purchasing the airline in 2022. Air India's woes aren't ending soon:it had to canceland divert flights after Israel's overnight strikes on Iran, and a bomb threat on one flight forced the pilots to make an emergency landing in Thailand.

The plane involved in Thursday's crash was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It has not been involved in major accidents before now, and is a workhorse of long-haul flights. However, according toIndia's aviation watchdog,in August 2023, an Indian Air 787 Dreamliner was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff at Mumbai airport.

Boeing has been under intense scrutiny over faults with its 737 Max that caused two plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed more than 300 people.

Boeing has said it will support the investigation led by Indian authorities.

A satellite photo from the European firm Airbus shows the aftermath of a strike by Israel on a building that houses centrifuges at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility.Open Source Centre/Airbus Defence and Spacehide caption

As part of a broad strike on Iran, Israel has attacked several of the country's key nuclear facilities.

The first and most visible strike took place in the opening hours of the Israeli air campaign, which began overnight on Thursday. In a statement the Israeli military said that fighter jets had struck Iran's largest enrichment facility at Natanz. "As part of the strikes, the underground area of the site was damaged. This area contains a multi-story enrichment hall with centrifuges, electrical rooms, and additional supporting infrastructure," the statement read in part.

Video posted online and verified by NPR showed black smoke billowing from the Natanz site early Friday morning local time. A set of images from the commercial satellite company Airbus showed damage to the main electrical substation at the facility and to buildings used to assemble and run centrifuges.

By Friday afternoon, there wereadditional reportsof Israeli strikes near Iran's other main enrichment facility at Fordow, andat Isfahan, which is also home to a nuclear research complex. So far, little is known about those strikes, which have taken place in the second night of fighting.

Ina statement, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said that the attack at the Natanz plant caused damage but that no radioactive or chemical contamination had leaked outside the site.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, condemned the attack.

"I have repeatedly stated that nuclear facilities must never be attacked, regardless of the context or circumstances," Grossi said during a meeting of the agency's board of governors.

The Natanz facility has been at the center of Iran's nuclear program for decades. According to the IAEA, which has been monitoring activities at the site for the past several years, Iran has recently been using thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium to 60%, far above the levels normally used in civilian nuclear reactors. The agency says that Iran has stockpiled more than 400 kilograms of the highly enriched material, enough by some estimates to quickly build around 10 nuclear weapons.

⭕️ IAF fighter jets, guided by precise intelligence, struck the Iranian regime's uranium enrichment site in the Natanz area overnight. This is the largest uranium enrichment site in Iran, which has operated for years to achieve nuclear weapons capability and houses the…pic.twitter.com/JVLIZFHwLm

It's unclear how quickly that material could practically be converted into bombs. During the enrichment process, the uranium is stored as a gas. It must be separated and converted into metal, which in turn must be fashioned into components for a nuclear device. Iran had a covert program to research such a weapon in the early 2000s, but it has never built a nuclear weapon before, and has said publicly it has no intentions to pursue one.

In a statement shortly after the strike, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel believed Iran had recently restarted its program to build a nuclear weapon. "If not stopped, Iran could produce a weapon in a very short time," he said in prepared remarks shortly after the strike. The operation's goal, Netanyahu stated, was to "strike at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment program."

Preliminary analysis of satellite imagery at the site suggests the damage from the first wave of attacks was actually limited, according to Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who has tracked Iran's program.

Images from satellite company Airbus showed damage to several buildings at the Natanz site that are used to assemble centrifuges. The images also showed damage to support equipment, including an electrical substation and buildings that may provide power and access to the underground structures at the site.

لحظاتی پیش صدای ۲ انفجار از محدودهٔ سایت فردو به گوش رسید و ۲ نقطه از سطح زمین در محدوده فردو هدف قرار گرفته شده است.سایت اتمی فردو در عمق چندصد متری زمین قرار دارد.pic.twitter.com/8PyJ8Bq2sQ

"That's likely to disrupt operations at the plant, but crucially, what they didn't do was find a way to destroy the thousands of centrifuges that are buried underground," Lewis says.

Lewis also saw no evidence that Israel had struck at tunnels deep beneath a nearby mountain. Iran was reportedly digging those tunnels to create a more fortified facility for its centrifuges. In recent days it had pledged that it would accelerate development of a third centrifuge site, possibly in the mountain facility.

Lewis says he wonders whether military force can truly eliminate Iran's nuclear program. In the end, he says, there is no single facility or scientist that holds the key to the entire nuclear enterprise in Iran.

"Unless the Israelis can keep bombing them indefinitely," he says, "they will always have the ability to technically reconstitute the program if they make a decision to do so."

First-responders gather outside a building that was hit by an Israeli strike in Tehran.Meghdad Madadi/Tasnim News/AFP via Getty Imageshide caption

First-responders gather outside a building that was hit by an Israeli strike in Tehran.

Early Friday local time, Israel finally did what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been threatening to do for years: It launched a massive attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, killing top military commanders, nuclear scientists and — according to Iran — dozens of Iranian civilians.

The attacks have once again plunged the volatile region into uncharted waters.

NPR correspondent Hadeel al-Shalchi in Tel Aviv and NPR's National Security Correspondent Greg Myre discuss what this could mean for the region and for U.S. hopes of a deal limiting Iran's nuclear program.

For sponsor-free episodes ofConsider This,sign up for Consider This+via Apple Podcasts or atplus.npr.org.

Email us atconsiderthis@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Michael Leavitt, Marc Rivers and Jordan Marie Smith. It was edited by James Hider, Krishnadev Calamur, Jeanette Woods and Connor Donevan. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

Taken by a fish-eye lens, this photograph shows the grand staircase of the Palais Garnier in Paris on Dec. 9, 2024.Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Imageshide caption

Taken by a fish-eye lens, this photograph shows the grand staircase of the Palais Garnier in Paris on Dec. 9, 2024.

Commissioned by Napoleon, the opulent Opera Garnier is named after its architect, Charles Garnier. Garnier rose from the Paris slums to design one of Europe's most celebrated venues. Opera Garnier eventually became the inspiration for the novel and musical, "Phantom of the Opera."

People look over damage to buildings in Nobonyad Square following Israeli airstrikes on June 13, 2025 in Tehran, Iran.Majid Saeedi/Majid Saeedi/Getty Images Europehide caption

Israel launched air strikes into Iran early Friday, targeting Iran's nuclear facilities and killing top military leaders, officials and nuclear scientists in the process. Iran launched over 100 drones toward Israel on Friday morning in retaliation, and the region is bracing for further military escalation.

Israellaunched the strikesover its concerns about Iran's advancing nuclear program. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel targeted Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility.

"We are at a decisive moment in Israel's history," Netanyahu said early Friday, adding that the operation would "roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's survival."

Ahead of the attack, the U.S. and Iran were discussing a deal that would have Iran scale down its nuclear program in exchange for the U.S. to lift sanctions, which have crippled Iran's economy. Though Iran insists it does not want to create a nuclear weapon, Netanyahu has been adamant that the only way to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is by going to war. The U.S. was set to meet with Iran on Sunday, but Iran says it will not attend the meeting after the Israeli attack.

In aMorning Editioninterview, U.S.-Iranian relations expert Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told NPR's Michel Martin that Israel does not want to see the U.S. and Iran resolve their problems and improve their relationship.

"The Israelis calculate that even if there is an improvement in US-Iran relations and a reduction in U.S. Iran tensions, it will not be accompanied by a reduction in Israeli Iranian tensions," Parsi said. "So the Israelis have, for more than 20 years, tried to sabotage any diplomacy between the United States and Iran."

While speaking with NPR's Steve Inskep, Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon said the decision to attack Iran was an "independent decision of Israel" and an "act of self-defense." Danon went on to say the decision was made after reports that Iran had "enough material for multiple nuclear weapons."

"After October 7th, we learned that we are not going to wait for our enemies to surprise us again," Danon said. "That's why we targeted the nuclear sites and also the industry of the ballistic missiles that Iran developed."

For more insight into Israel's attack on Iran and what the strikes mean for the region, here is more from Parsi and Danon.

The following interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

A woman pushes a stroller full with goods as people stock up with supplies, at a shop in Jerusalem, on June 13, 2025.John Wessels/AFP via Getty Imageshide caption

Steve Inskeep: What, in Israel's view, justified an attack on another country at this time?

Danny Danon: Well, we obtained the information about a secret program that included all the necessary parts to put together a bomb. The IAEA decided and reported that Iran possesses enough material for multiple nuclear weapons. So, we decided to take a preemptive action, a preemptive attack, and not to wait and not to be surprised.

Inskeep: Well, let's talk about the information that you say you obtained about an Iranian secret program, the various components of a bomb. We will note that Iran always denies they have any ambition to build a nuclear weapon, although they insist that they have the right to a nuclear program. Are you asserting that they were on their way to making a bomb or only that the secret program had the capacity to do so?

Danon: No. Moreover, we have the intelligence that it wasn't like a nuclear reactors for civil usage. It was a military program that was hidden from the international community. And once we realized that they are playing the game and they are getting very close to the point of no return, we couldn't take that risk. A few hours ago, they sent more than 100 drones. We expect ballistic missiles to fly into Israel in the next few days. So we cannot wait for the day that they will actually be able to put the nuclear capability on those ballistic missiles that they have already.

Inskeep: I just want to make sure that I understand what you're saying, though. You're saying they had this program for building a nuclear weapon. Was Iran actually actively assembling a nuclear weapon, according to your intelligence?

Danon: Absolutely. They were moving forward. And I think what we realized is that they have enough uranium, they have the technology. And you know what? We believed them. They said very clearly, 'We will destroy the Jewish nation.' They didn't hide it. So, we decided not to take that chance. History has taught us that when you have a regime which threatens to annihilate the Jewish people, we better believe them.

People look over damage to buildings following Israeli airstrikes on June 13, 2025 in Tehran, Iran.Majid Saeedi/Majid Saeedi/Getty Images Europehide caption

Michel Martin: What was your top line assessment of what just happened?

Trita Parsi: I think the top line here is that even though the Trump administration says that the US was not involved, clearly there had been coordination and some form of a green light given by the Trump administration for the Israelis to do this.

Martin: You said that because it's just not reasonable to assume that this would have happened without some thought that the U.S. would approve?

Parsi: Well, also, based on what Trump is now currently saying, because he's essentially trying to take advantage of these strikes in order to get the Iranians to capitulate in the negotiations, because there has been an opportunity to strike a deal, one that would limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

But Trump shifted his position a couple of weeks ago and was no longer content with just limiting the program. He wants to essentially eliminate the program. And that led nowhere, predictably. And now instead, it appears that he has shifted towards allowing the Israelis to conduct these strikes in order to see whether that will change the Iranian position or not.

Martin: As Iranian state media says, Tehran will respond decisively to the Israeli strikes. You and other analysts have suggested this actually makes it more likely that Iran will continue to pursue a nuclear program.

Parsi: Well, nothing really strengthens your desire for nuclear deterrence than actually being attacked. And you have now several heads of the Atomic Energy Agency who have been warning that any attack on Iran will increase the likelihood that the Iranians will leave the Non-Proliferation Treaty and move towards a bomb. And that risk is now very significant.

So, Trump is making a major gamble here, thinking that this actually will soften the Iranian position and make them capitulate. If they don't, what are his options? And this is where I think the Israelis are hoping that the Iranians will not capitulate and that will force the United States into the war.

Treye Green edited the digital piece.

Crude oil prices rose sharply as Israel's attack on Iran raised fears of a broader disruption of Middle East oil supplies. Relatively low gasoline prices in the U.S. have helped to keep inflation in check.Brandon Bell/Getty Images North Americahide caption

Oil prices jumped and stocks tumbled Friday following Israel's attack on Iran, which raised fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East.

Crude oil prices saw their biggest increase since Russia's invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, pushing the U.S. benchmark close to $73 a barrel. If sustained, that could reversethe downward slidein gasoline prices, which has helped to keep inflation in check. The Labor Department said Wednesday thatgas prices had fallen 12%in the last twelve months.

Stocks fell sharply Friday as investors weighed the potential fallout from the conflict. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell close to 500 points, or 1.1% in the first two hours of trading.

Investors were rattled afterIsrael launched air strikes into Iran, targeting the country's nuclear facilities, and Iran sent drones towards Israel to retaliate.

Ordinarily, nervous traders would seek shelter in U.S. government bonds, pushing bond prices up and yields down. That didn't happen early Friday, however, perhaps signaling investors' lingering worries over the high level of U.S. debt. This week, the Treasury Department reported that the federal deficit had topped $1.2 trillion, with four months still to go in the fiscal year.

Debris of Air India flight 171 is pictured after it crashed Thursday in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad. Rescue teams with sniffer dogs combed the crash site on Friday.PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Imageshide caption

MUMBAI, India — India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has begun investigating Thursday's deadly Air India crash, one of the country's worst aviation accidents in decades, with assistance from the U.S.National Transportation Safety Boardand British investigators. Authorities said the plane's flight data recorder, or black box, was recovered from a rooftop at the crash site. "This marks an important step forward in the investigation. This will significantly aid the enquiry into the incident," the government's Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naiduposted Friday on X.

The passenger in seat 11A on Air India flight 171 was the only one to walk out of the burning rubble — the lone survivor of the London-bound flight that crashed into a medical college and burst into flames on Thursday, just after it departed from the airport in the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad, with 242 passengers and crew aboard.

Authorities said they were undertaking DNA testing to identify the remains of the victims,who were burnedbeyond recognition. Local media reported that so far,only six couldbe returned to their families.State-run mediareported that India's aviation watchdog, thedirectorate general of civil aviation, ordered Air India to undertake extra safety checks on its Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 planes "as a preventative measure."

The surviving passenger, 40-year-old British citizen Vishwaskumar Ramesh, was hospitalized withnon-life threatening injuries, shortly after he walked out of the crash site. In footage shared by local media, he was seen bloodied, dazed and clutching his mobile phone.

"I just walked out, innit," he told the Indian dailyThe Hindu. From his hospital bed, he told other media that after the plane crashed, he managed to push aside the emergency exit door. "I can't explain, it's a miracle, everything." He had been traveling with his brother, who was a few seats away andwas killed.

Other casualties included five medical students who'd gathered for lunch at a cafeteria when the plane hit. Also killed were bystanders — a 15-year-old boy who had deliveredlunch to his mother,who ran a nearby roadside stall, and a grandmother who was delivering packed lunches in the company of her 2-year-old granddaughter.

The people of the state of Gujarat, where Ahmedabad is the capital, have long sought their fortunes abroad, and it was clear in the roster of victims who'd been on the flight: a man whosurprised his fatherwith a visit over the Muslim holiday of Eid; another who was returning home after attending his father's funeral.There was asingle motherreturning to her nursing job in the U.K.

The victims also included one of the directors of an Indian company,Lubi Pumps,who was traveling with his wife to visit his sister in London. "It's a tragedy in how fragile life can be," his colleague Samir Desai told NPR. "There's no assurity about the next moment, what's going to happen."

The tragedy comes amid India's ambitions to be a global transportation hub, and as the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi builds airports across regional centers at breakneck speed. India recently became the world's third-largest domestic aviation market, according to state-runNews On Air,which cited data from the Official Airline Guide, a global travel data service which provides aviation analytics.

But Indian aviation safety expertAmit Singh,a former pilot, told NPR that even as the industry is expanding, the safety culture is lacking. "The main issue is the relationship with the regulators and the operator," Singh said. "There's a lack of trust."

"People who are in the safety [industry] were not surprised — because they were expecting something big to happen," Singh said of Thursday's accident. "Something … does not happen out of the blue, there are always precursors to it — you'll have small incidents, then major incidents, then a big accident."

He referred to aplane crash in India in 2020, when a plane skidded off a runway, killing 21 people, andaccidents at flight schools. "Then suddenly, you have this," he said.

Another aviation safety expert,Mohan Ranganathan, told NPR that many of India's airports did not comply with safety standards to ensure there are no large obstacles near airports. He referred to Thursday's accident, in which the plane crashed into a six-story building just seconds after takeoff. "Such a tall building, very close to the takeoff path, just 300 meters [980 feet] from the compound wall, may be a serious violation," he said.

Ranganathan accused India's aviation watchdog of giving "licenses without proper checking, and the [government run] airport authority keeps violating, because India has one of the weakest judiciaries as far as aviation safety is concerned. They'll never give a verdict against the government agencies."

"If this doesn't wake them up, nothing will. Mumbai is a time bomb waiting to happen," he said, referring to India's populous port megacity and financial capital, where part of the airport is ringed by densely populated informal settlements.

NPR reached out to India's civil aviation authority, the federal aviation minister, Air India and its corporate owners, the Tata Group, for comment on these allegations but did not receive a response.

Indian mediaquoted N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of the Tata Group,as saying,"We will be completely transparent about the findings."

Chandrasekaran said the company took "its responsibility to society seriously, and that includes being open about what occurred yesterday." The Tata Group also said it would provide more than $100,000 to the families of each victim, and offered to cover medical care for the wounded.

Reutersreported Friday that the Tata Group has faced repeated problems with Air India since purchasing the airline in 2022. Air India's woes aren't ending soon:it had to canceland divert flights after Israel's overnight strikes on Iran, and a bomb threat on one flight forced the pilots to make an emergency landing in Thailand.

The plane involved in Thursday's crash was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It has not been involved in major accidents before now, and is a workhorse of long-haul flights. However, according toIndia's aviation watchdog,in August 2023, an Indian Air 787 Dreamliner was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff at Mumbai airport.

Boeing has been under intense scrutiny over faults with its 737 Max that caused two plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed more than 300 people.

Boeing has said it will support the investigation led by Indian authorities.