It’s also the latest disaster to hit the beleaguered American aerospace giant — which has been dogged by a door that blew off a 737 jet, a leaky spacecraft that stranded astronauts on the International Space Station for months, as well as politically damaging delays in outfitting the new Air Force One jets.

A devastating air disaster struck India on Thursday afternoon when Air India Flight AI171, en route from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed minutes after takeoff, plummeting into the densely populated Meghani Nagar neighborhood.