Amid 13 Air India 787 cancellations, Gaurav Taneja lauds pilots for putting their foot down and ‘refusing to accept' unsafe aircraft

Indian Express

5 hours ago

YouTuber Gaurav Taneja, who's known as Flying Beast online, posted a short video on Tuesday defending the pilots involved in the recent Air India Flight 171 crash in Ahmedabad, which left over 250 individuals dead. He said that it is easier for airlines to claim insurance if they pin the blame on the pilots, who aren't there to defend themselves. He'd previously debunked theories that suggested human error led to the crash, saying that in his opinion, it was a rare 'dual engine failure' that likely caused it. He'd also spoken about the pressure that airlines put on pilots in India. As the dual engine failure theory gains steam amid the ongoing investigation into the crash, several other Air India flights were cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Reacting to the mass cancellations, Taneja wrote on X, 'Lot of Air India flight getting cancelled recently due to technical snags, after the 12th June accident. Pilots hopefully have stopped accepting the aircraft's with so many MEL's each flight. It increases their workload immensely. Everyone knows that the 'Red' airline is being dispatched on minimum equipment's. 90+ MEL's every flight. DGCA should step in and stop this.' He's referring to the Minimum Equipment List, which is 'a categorised list of on-board systems, instruments and equipment that may be inoperative for flight in a specified aircraft model.'
Also read – After defending deceased pilots, Gaurav Taneja suggests overloading caused Air India Flight 171 crash: 'Airlines earn maximum money from cargo'
In his short video posted on Tuesday, Taneja had said that overloading of the aircraft might have caused an issue. Citing video of the crash, and data made available online, he said that the Air India Flight 171 took longer to take off than it should have, and said that several airlines overload aircraft with cargo to earn extra money. 'The aircraft is overloaded because airlines earn maximum money from cargo, and they report less cargo on paper but actually they overload the aircraft. Was that the reason behind the crash?' He also mentioned a flight from Tel Aviv that met with an accident due to an error in recording cargo weight. He concluded the video by saying, 'More details are awaited, we will update you soon'
Lot of Air India flight getting cancelled recently due to technical snags, after the 12th June accident.
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Pilots hopefully have stopped accepting the aircraft's with so many MEL's each flight. It increases their workload immensely.
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Everyone knows that the 'Red' airline is…
— Gaurav Taneja (@flyingbeast320) June 17, 2025
On Monday, he had defended the deceased pilots against blame. In a video, he said, 'It's very easy to blame the pilots when they are not there to defend themselves. Boeing and Air India both are big companies so leave them and let's blame the pilot. Also, it gets easy to claim insurance if you blame it on the pilot. That is one more reason for big companies to not take it on themselves. Americans think Indian pilots aren't very competent but that's not the case.'
Looks like earlier they were flying with minimal checks, 'chalta hai' attitude but are not taking risks anymore. So the same flight with same number of tech issues would have been airborne a few weeks ago but someone has put their foot down finally.
Hope they improve their… https://t.co/3Os9fC5qUU
— वरुण 🇮🇳 (@varungrover) June 17, 2025
Writer-director-lyricist Varun Grover also spoke about safety issues in a post on X, writing, 'Looks like earlier they were flying with minimal checks, 'chalta hai' attitude but are not taking risks anymore. So the same flight with same number of tech issues would have been airborne a few weeks ago but someone has put their foot down finally. Hope they improve their baseline safety and maintenance and if that means cancelling most flights for the next few months, totally a financial risk worth taking.' After the Flight 171 crash last week, more than 80 flights have been cancelled for various reasons. Air India cancelled 13 Boeing 787-operated AI flights on Tuesday.