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Air India crash: Cockpit error or fuel system contamination, what brought AI71 down? Probe looks at 2020 UK mishap
The 2020 incident, which involved an Airbus A321, saw the plane's both engines malfunction shortly after take-off. Fortunately, the plane had gained an altitude of almost 3580 feet and was able to make the roundabout read more
This handout taken and posted on the X (formerly Twitter) account of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) On June 12, 2025 shows the back of an Air India plane after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad. Image- AFP
The officials investigating the Air India flight AI-171 crash are closely drawing parallels with a February 2020 incident at the UK's Gatwick airport, and are hunting for clues.
The incident, which involved an Airbus A321, saw the plane's both engines malfunction shortly after take-off.
The pilots made a Mayday call and returned to the airport after 11 minutes after a turnaround.
Fortunately, the Airbus plane had gained an altitude of almost 3580 feet and was able to make the roundabout and touch down after declaring Mayday thrice. However, the people onboard the doomed Air India plane were not that lucky as it came crashing down after gaining the altitude of just 625 feet.
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Looking for clues
The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AIIB) later investigated the Airbus incident and found that the reason for the engine failure was fuel system contamination.
This despite engineers clearing the aircraft for operations just ahead of the take-off. Notably, the AIIB investigators have joined the Ahmedabad plane crash probe.
Officials are taking a look at AI-171's technical logs in the 24 hours preceding the crash.
Plane lost power after take-off
The officials meanwhile also appear to conclude that the plane lost power immediately after take-off, citing 'visual observation and wreckage'.
'The material evidence, which includes the wreckage and the videos of the takeoff as well as the crash, indicate a definite power failure on the flight. The cause will be known only when the black box data is recovered but we can estimate that since the flight was in a takeoff and its nose pitched up for the liftoff, the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) could not help the flight make a safe turnaround as it had not even achieved the minimum altitude of 3600 feet for a safe path,' Indian Express quoted an officer as saying.
The officer also dismissed speculations around cockpit error, saying the pilots 'may have tried their best to gain manual control'.
'It does not appear to be a cockpit error… The observations are that the power failure occurred as soon as the flight was airborne and was unable to climb to the safe path altitude… the (Boeing) 787 Dreamliner has a provision for a manual reversion control system to allow pilots to regain control of critical systems in the event of a hydraulic failure. This system is a backup, using RAT to generate power, but there was no altitude cushion to ensure a safe glide downward or for the pilot to attempt anything… It just dropped on to the medical hostel building, with the tail being impacted and separated due to its liftoff position. Had it achieved an elevation of about 3600-4900 feet, it could have been a different story as planes can safely make Mayday landings with the RAT,' the officer said.
On fuel contamination
The officer said investigators were looking at technical log of the aircraft to examine whether any technical abnormalities were flagged by any of the previous captains or maintenance staff.
'The aircraft was incoming from Paris to Delhi and from Delhi to Ahmedabad… In fact, it made a round trip to Paris from Delhi on June 11-12. Just a day earlier, it had returned to Delhi after a round trip to Tokyo. We will check the technical logs to see if any of the engineering teams or pilots of the previous flight left comments on the performance of both engines or experienced any ECAM (Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor) message during the flight, accompanied by any thrust issues during flight,' the officer said.
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'At this point, we have no reason to speculate a sabotage but if the cause of the engine failure is fuel contamination, which is most likely due to water, the maintenance records of the flight, which are also under scrutiny, will reveal if it was due to oversight or negligence or corrosion in the fuel system, leading to clogging which is rare if the aircraft is regularly serviced. Fuel contaminated with water is the most common cause of power loss in flights and, many times, cannot be detected until the aircraft is actually airborne,' the officer said.
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Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Air India crash 'could have killed thousands' — why faulty planes are not India's only problem
Bhavesh Patni had just sat down with his family for a lunch of eggplant and potato curry when an Air India plane took off from the runway behind their home in the city of Ahmedabad, flew over their heads and crashed into a medical college campus visible from their building. As Patni climbed up to his terrace to watch the flames from a disaster that would ultimately kill 241 people on the plane and at least 34 on the ground, he shuddered as he thought about his family's proximity to the nightmare below them. In Ahmedabad, as in cities across this country of 1.4 billion people, there is little buffer between the increasingly busy airport and the densely populated neighborhoods that encircle it. That puts residents in the danger zone if anything goes wrong during takeoffs and landings, the time when most aviation accidents occur. This reality illustrates a pressing challenge for India. The country's growing wealth has given it the means to be more on the move. Air passenger traffic has doubled over the past decade, as has the number of operational airports. But India's expanding aviation ambitions have been superimposed on existing urban infrastructures that are already pushed to the limit by the rapid growth of cities. "It was only by God's grace that we survived," Patni, a cargo handler at the Ahmedabad airport, said days after last week's crash. As he spoke, rescue workers were still retrieving human remains from the wreckage, and cranes were trying to dislodge the aircraft's tail from the medical college building's roof. Live Events You Might Also Like: From Dreamliner to nightmare: The warnings Boeing may have missed as Air India crash rekindles old fears Around the world, major airports are increasingly situated far from city centers, in part because such land is cheaper and expansion is easier, and in part to mitigate the health risks of noise and air pollution and the possible dangers of air accidents. But the airports in India's biggest cities are some of the most "enclosed" in the world, according to a 2022 study by researchers in Belgium. Mumbai's airport topped the study's rankings, and the airports in Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Delhi were among the top 25. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has particularly promoted the growth of air connectivity across the immense country. India, which has doubled the number of its international and domestic airports to over 150 in the past decade, says it plans to increase the number to 350 in the next two decades. With more than 1 million flights and 175 million passengers last year, India was the third-largest air transport market, after the United States and China. The country's expanding economy has finally brought in the kind of resources that could lift up its long-neglected infrastructure. Modi's critics say he has pushed a model of development that prioritizes quick results at the cost of careful planning and execution. You Might Also Like: Air India crash: What makes it much more than just an aviation disaster They point to roads and bridges that collapse soon after completion, and to the flouting of basic safety standards. India does not have enough airport officials who understand the minute details that are crucial to ensuring safety, said Yeshwanth Shenoy, a public interest lawyer and activist who has been going to court to try to improve airport safety for more than a decade. A parliamentary report earlier this year said that there was serious staffing shortage in official bodies that enforce aviation safety standards, including a vacancy rate of more than 50% in the civil aviation authority. In Mumbai, where the international airport accounts for a quarter of India's air traffic, there are more than 1,000 buildings that violate safety standards meant to prevent the obstruction of flight paths, Shenoy said. City authorities admitted in court that hundreds of buildings were obstructions. 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It stood a safe distance of about 10 miles from the old city, Patel said. Patel, 64, said he remembered joining his family as a child on picnics at the edge of the airport, to watch takeoffs and landings. Ahmedabad became an international airport in the 1990s. The city's population had grown along with it; today an estimated 8 million live there, more than double the number two decades ago. One study found that a tenth of the population was affected by loud noise from air traffic. Many in the neighborhoods around the airport said such noise was routine. As the airport grew busier, these neighborhoods -- where amenities like grain markets and medicine shops sprang up -- became highly sought after for jobs. Vikram Sinh, 60, who lives in a government-owned apartment there and runs a grocery store, was able to put two of his children through medical school with his earnings. Both are now doctors in Canada. "This is a golden area in all of Gujarat," he said. "I do not feel like leaving this place." The airport currently has over 13 million passengers a year. Its operations were handed over in 2020 to Adani Airport Holdings, part of the empire of Gautam Adani, a billionaire ally of Modi's. The company signed a 50-year deal with the government. As it has laid out its plans for the airport's future, Adani Holdings has described it as "one of the most land-constrained airports in India." Yet the company aims to expand the airport's passenger capacity to 18 million annually by next year and to 40 million by 2040. Patel, who is a member of the opposition Congress party, said the expansion of the existing airport in the middle of Ahmedabad when open land outside the densely-populated city was plenty spoke to a lack of long term planning. "We do patchwork development," he said, "not the kind that looks ahead to the next 25 years." Dharmendra Shah, a leader of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat, acknowledged the scarcity of available land inside the city. He said authorities would study what caused the crash, but also he stood by the city's plans. "According to me," he said, "the development model of the city is just fine, including the airport's."
News18
3 hours ago
- News18
‘Flew With Compassion': Air India Pays Tribute To Cabin Crew Of Ill-Fated Flight AI-171
Last Updated: Air India said that crew members' grace, warmth, and unwavering care touched thousands of lives in the skies and on the ground. Air India on Friday paid rich tributes to cabin crew members of the ill-fated London-bound Flight AI-171 that crashed in Ahmedabad last week, saying that their grace, warmth, and unwavering care touched thousands of lives in the skies and on the ground. In a special message, Air India wrote, 'With hearts full of sorrow, we remember the cabin crew members we lost – beloved colleagues, cherished friends, and the soul of every journey they were a part of. Their grace, warmth, and unwavering care touched thousands of lives in the skies and on the ground. To passengers, they were calm and comforting faces. To us, they were family." With hearts full of sorrow, we remember the cabin crew members we lost – beloved colleagues, cherished friends, and the soul of every journey they were a part grace, warmth, and unwavering care touched thousands of lives in the skies and on the ground. To passengers,… — Air India (@airindia) June 20, 2025 The airline extended solidarity with their family at this time of immense loss. 'Senior leaders from the Tata Group and Air India continue to stand beside their families and loved ones – to honour their memory, share in their grief, and offer quiet strength in a moment that words cannot ease." 'Their kindness, spirit, and dedication will forever remain a part of who we are. We remember: Aparna Amol Mahadik, Shradha Mahadev Dhavan, Deepak Balasaheb Pathak, Irfan Samir Shaikh, Lamnunthem Singson, Maithili Patil, Kongbrailatpam Nganthoi Sharma, Saineeta Abin Chakravarti, Manisha Thapa and Roshni Rajendra Songhare. You flew with compassion. You will be remembered with love," the post added. The body of Air India cabin crew Lamnunthem Singson reached her hometown in Manipur's Kangpokpi district on Thursday night, after being flown to Dimapur airport in Nagaland. Tragically, another cabin crew member from Manipur, Kongbrailatpam Nganthoi Sharma, who belonged to the Meitei community, also died in the same disaster. Her body is yet to arrive in the state. Ahmedabad Plane Crash India witnessed one of its worst aviation tragedies on Thursday after a London-bound Air India plane, carrying 242 passengers and crew, including former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, crashed into a medical college complex shortly after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport. 241 out of 242 passengers and crew members on board the Boeing 787-8 (AI 171) and another 29 persons, including five MBBS students, on the ground were killed in the crash. The aircraft was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal with First Officer Clive Kunder. Two senior cabin crew members have been identified as Shradha Dhavan and Aparna Mahadik. The other cabin crew members were Saineeta Chakravarti, Nganthoi Kongbrailatpam Sharma, Deepak Pathak, Maithili Patil, Irfan Shaikh, Lamnunthem Singson, Roshni Songhare Rajendra, and Manisha Thapa. One person survived the tragedy. The lone survivor was identified as Indian-origin British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh who was returning to the UK with his brother Ajay Kumar Rakesh, 45, who was in a different row inside the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. Meanwhile, 211 victims have been identified so far through DNA matching, while 189 bodies are handed over to their families. Authorities are carrying out DNA tests to establish the identity of the victims as many bodies were charred beyond recognition or severely damaged. The aircraft had 232 passengers and 10 crew members, including 169 Indians, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese and a Canadian, on board. First Published: June 20, 2025, 11:39 IST
NDTV
4 hours ago
- NDTV
Exclusive: How Air India Flight's Black Box Was Damaged And What Comes Next
New Delhi: The black box units from the wreckage of Air India Flight AI-171, which crashed 36 seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad on June 12, killing 274 people, including 33 on the ground, have sustained damage. According to aviation sources speaking to NDTV, one of the black boxes is visibly more damaged than the other, likely due to a fall during or after the crash. Both the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), collectively referred to as the "black boxes", are currently in secure custody under the supervision of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). Sources involved in the crash investigation told NDTV that a preliminary inspection shows external structural compromise, which, if not handled delicately, could risk internal data integrity. What We Know 1. Two black box units have been recovered - one unit is more damaged than the other. 2. A decision on what to do with the black boxes will be taken soon. 3. Options under consideration: The black boxes may be sent to a HAL facility near Lucknow, the NTSB in the United States, the Civil Aviation Authority in the United Kingdom, or to Singapore. 4. One of the black boxes has sustained damage to its outer surface. This damage occurred as a result of a fall. 5. The data on both the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) is stored in binary format. This data must be converted into an engineering format, after which information will become accessible. The interpretation of this data will form the basis of the crash report. 6. It remains unclear whether a preliminary report or a final report will be issued. 7. Investigators are concerned about opening the damaged black box due to the condition of its outer casing. 8. It is possible that data from the second, undamaged unit can be retrieved within India. 9. India's aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has stepped up randomised surveillance of relevant flights during the interim period. 10. The investigation will include analysis of debris samples and material samples from the surface of the runway. 11. Sabotage also needs to be ruled out. 12. Sources on the crash of AI-171 stated: "This is a mystery." What Is A Black Box The black box from the doomed Air India flight was recovered Monday, 28 hours after the crash. The 'black boxes' are actually bright orange in colour to help locate them from debris and wreckage. The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) captures up to 25 hours of cockpit conversations, noise, radio calls with air traffic control, and audible alerts in newer aircraft models. However, AI-171 was operating a Boeing 787 delivered in 2014, prior to the 2021 mandate for 25-hour CVR storage. Therefore, the recorder likely had a two-hour recording capacity. The Flight Data Recorder (FDR), on the other hand, collects parameters such as altitude, airspeed, heading, vertical acceleration, and control surface movements, among others. In modern jets like the 787-8, FDRs can record thousands of parameters simultaneously and loop for over 25 hours. The Crash And Its Aftermath The aircraft, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner registered VT-ANB, lifted off at 1:39 PM on June 12 from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad, en route to London Gatwick. Less than a minute into the flight, the pilots transmitted a distress call citing loss of thrust. Radio contact was subsequently lost. Seconds later, the aircraft, carrying 242 passengers and crew, crashed into a residential area near Meghani Nagar, adjacent to the airport's northeast perimeter. It ignited a blaze on impact, damaging a medical college hostel and killing 33 people on the ground. The sole survivor, seated in 11A, is a British-Indian man who was thrown clear of the wreckage.
