The crash of Air India flight AI171 has killed at least 265 people — making it the worst commercial aviation disaster in more than a decade.

A Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner went down in a residential area shortly after taking off from India’s Ahmedabad Airport. It was bound for London Gatwick.

ABC NEWS Verify has examined video footage and flight data to try and gain insight into what went wrong.

And a warning — this article shows and discusses graphic content.

Where did the plane crash?

Ahmedabad is a city in India’s west, in the state of Gujarat. Its airport is in the city’s north-east.

The crash site can be found to the south-west of the airport — about 1.5 kilometres away — in line with the end of the runway.

The plane crashed close to the airport shortly after taking off. (ABC NEWS Verify: Devi Mallal)

Data from flight tracker, Flightradar24, shows AI171 took off at about 13:38 local time. Reuters reported that local air traffic control said the plane took off a minute later at 13:39.

The flight was tracked to 625 feet, or just over 190 metres, in the air before the signal dropped out.

At that point in time, the plane was travelling just over 320 kilometres per hour.

Security camera footage — verified by Associated Press — was recorded from a location on the airport’s east side and shows these events.

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The aircraft crashed around 30 seconds after take-off.

The video shows the aircraft taking off and flying for approximately 30 seconds before hitting the ground. ABC NEWS Verify has clipped the video before a fireball appears in the sky.

What could have happened?

Another video posted online shows the crash from a separate angle.

The 17-second clip shows the plane, with its nose pitched up, losing altitude before hitting the ground — causing a large fireball.

The Air India aircraft was seen flying with its landing gear visible, before crashing and exploding. (Supplied)

Ron Bartsch is a leading expert in aviation safety and chairman of Avlaw — a respected international aviation consulting company.

He said it appears the aircraft’s flaps — which help increase lift on take-off and landing — do not appear to be in the right position, and the landing gear is down.

“There are some abnormalities with the video that I’ve seen,” he told ABC NEWS Verify.

“The fact that the aircraft still appears to be with its gear down and flaps retracted at 600 feet after take-off is not the usual configuration for an aircraft.

“The aircraft would have been very close to maximum take-off weight, the ambient conditions were around 40 degrees Celsius — so they’re not conditions for aircraft performance.

“The aircraft can climb with its gear down, but at a low speed like that, it would need to have extra lift generated by the flaps, so obviously in the configuration it was at the time, it wasn’t able to climb,” Professor Bartsch said.

The flaps on the plane are located at the rear of the wings. (ABC NEWS Verify: Devi Mallal)

He added that it is early days in the investigation but said engine failure was unlikely.

“Double engine failures is virtually something that can be completely ruled out because the chances of an engine failure in these modern aircraft is very, very remote,” Professor Bartsch said.

“It really does appear that there’s been some degree of human error in this catastrophe.”

Guy Hirst, a career pilot and aviation educator, told the ABC that a bird strike could have caused the incident.

“Ahmedabad does suffer quite a lot from flocks of birds, and although they’ve been doing quite a lot at the airport to try and reduce the possibilities, that is always a possibility.”

Another expert agreed that pilot error could be the blame.

“This is indicative of the pilots pulling up the flaps instead of the landing gear after take-off,” former pilot and aviation analyst James Nixon told ABC Melbourne.

Aviation expert Keith Tonkin told ABC News Breakfast, the landing gear being left down shows the pilots were occupied.

“The fact that the landing gear was left down probably indicates that the pilots were pretty busy trying to deal with whatever those circumstances were,” he said.

According to Reuters, air traffic control said the plane made a “mayday” call — signalling an emergency — just after take-off, but after that point, there was no response from the aircraft.

Authorities are now working to find the aircraft’s black box — an on-board crash-protected recording device, which captures aircraft data and sound from the cockpit.

This will help investigators determine exactly what happened to flight AI171.