Boeing’s safety track record has already been under fire, especially after the 737 MAX tragedy that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019
Thirty seconds. That was all the time the ill-fated Air India flight 171 spent in the air before crashing outside the Ahmedabad airport last week.
Eleven seconds into liftoff at 1.39 pm, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal sent out a chilling call to the ATC saying: ‘Mayday, Mayday, no thrust, losing power, unable to lift, going down’. Nineteen seconds later, the plane had crashed after dropping from a height of 650 feet.
It was a clear, hot afternoon with the skies above Ahmedabad shimmering under 40 degrees Celsius. Everything was routine, until it wasn’t. Flight 171 became the centre of one of the worst aviation disasters in India.
Let’s try decoding the crash, but without any verdict on what may have caused it. For that, we must wait for a detailed air crash investigation.
Investigators are facing a long road ahead in solving this big mystery. The truth will emerge sooner than later from the aircraft’s black box. But there are four significant tell-tale signs from the video footage of the takeoff and crash.
Number 1 and the most important – the landing gear was out during the entire 30 seconds that the flight was in the air. Usually, the landing gear is retracted by the pilots within a few seconds of liftoff.
Number 2 – the jury is divided over whether the flaps were extended or retracted. During liftoff, the flaps are extended to aid in lift. But the aircraft’s angle during takeoff, being in a nose-up position, and grainy footage makes it difficult to ascertain if the flaps were extended or retracted.
Number 3 – the aircraft had nearly exhausted the 3.5-km runway before liftoff. Was it looking for more thrust? A dust cloud can also be seen in the footage right at takeoff.
Number 4 – the pilot’s ‘Mayday’ message indicates both engines had failed as he reported no thrust or power.
So, what could have happened? Aviation experts have proposed many theories.
The biggest among them is a possible double engine failure due to bird strikes. This is one of the rarest occurrences – last seen in the 2009 case of US Airways Flight 1549, which landed in New York’s Hudson River soon after takeoff.
A Dreamliner can fly on one engine. But both failing during takeoff is catastrophic. The dust cloud seen in the footage right at takeoff could be engine-related – possibly birds being ingested, some aviation experts pointed out.
But there are no visible large bird flocks or smoke trails visible in video footage. Other experts said engine stalling due to electrical or software issues in the plane is unlikely, given how sophisticated the Dreamliner is with multiple backups too.
There’s also a theory around the aircraft’s flaps and landing gear. Captain Steve has suggested that the flaps may have been retracted, reducing lift, while the landing gear remained deployed. He has speculated that the pilots may have pulled up the flaps instead of the landing gear by mistake. Some speculate that maybe only one engine failed but the pilots turned off the live engine by mistake.
But these were experienced pilots with more than 9,000 hours of flying time between them. Captain Sumeet Sabharwal was a veteran at flying the Dreamliner on long-haul flights.
The landing gear and flaps switch in the cockpit is located far apart, other experts pointed out. Switching off a live engine is also something basic training modules alert against.
The pilots committing such cardinal mistakes is unfathomable. There would be an alert in the cockpit if this had happened. Some experts said just the landing gear being down cannot make the plane crash.
Also, it is easy and convenient to blame the pilot, isn’t it?
The temperature was within operating conditions for the flight. Fuel contamination is believed to be unlikely too, as per some experts.
So, is it a problem with the aircraft itself? Does Boeing need to answer as well? To be sure, the probe will look into all possibilities, including a cockpit error.
A big breakthrough is the recovery of the black box in a relatively intact condition. The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder will be analysed by the Indian investigating agency, Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). It will take the help of Boeing and GE, manufacturer of the engines.
A team from the US National Transportation Safety Board will help India in the probe. A team of Boeing officials from the US is going to arrive soon as well.
All 33 of Air India’s Boeing 787 Dreamliners, meanwhile, are undergoing safety checks, additional maintenance checks and pre-departure inspections.
Now I come to another big question – is there a pattern with the 787?
Yes, a Dreamliner 787 has never crashed in history since its commercial start in 2011. But there have been some signs of trouble.
Earlier this year, an American Airlines 787 made four emergency landings in one month – some due to faulty wing flaps. The same flaps are now under alleged scrutiny in the AI 171 disaster.
The American Airlines plane was initially forced to return to Amsterdam after a problem with its flaps was detected shortly after takeoff for Philadelphia on January 7. The aircraft dumped fuel over the North Sea before landing at Schiphol airport at a higher-than-normal speed, attributed to the flaps problem.
Later, this American Airlines plane was forced to abort flights to Philadelphia from Dublin, Barcelona, and Zurich.
Boeing’s safety track record has already been under fire, especially after the 737 MAX tragedy that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019. The Ahmedabad crash on June 12 came six years after the loss of two smaller 737 Max planes, which claimed 346 lives and plunged Boeing into a near-existential crisis.
And remember that after the first of these crashes, of Lion Air flight in Jakarta, Boeing had tried to put the blame on the pilots.
The Max, Boeing’s top seller, was grounded around the world for more than 18 months after investigators found that the crashes in 2018 and 2019 had been caused by software MCAS meant to improve the aircraft’s handling. Instead, the system effectively wrestled control from the pilots, who were unaware of how it worked and how it might be overridden.
The year 2025 has been deadly for aviation. Flight 171 was the second fatal commercial crash of 2025. Earlier on January 30, an American Airlines jet collided midair with a helicopter near Washington, killing all on board.
Other incidents, like a Delta plane flipping on landing and another catching fire mid-air, have raised urgent questions about aviation safety in 2025. An extraordinary event in February saw a Delta Airlines plane flipped upside down after a heavy landing at Toronto airport, though all passengers and crew survived.
In March, an American Airlines plane caught fire developing an engine fault and passengers were seen evacuating the plane onto the wing.
The AI 171 crash, however, is the worst this year and arguably the worst ever in India. Investigators are now combing through wreckage, black box data, and cockpit recordings to uncover what exactly happened in those final seconds.
For most on board, there was no hope. Out of 242 people on board, only one survived. Vishwas Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old Londoner seated in 11A, was found alive in the wreckage.
But more were killed on the ground as the plane crashed into residential quarters at the BJ Medical College. The toll could go well over 250.
