Residents jumped off building
Ahmedabad: Ramila, a local resident, tearfully recounted how her son narrowly escaped death. 'My son had gone to the hostel for lunch. I thought I had lost him. But by God's grace, he jumped from the second floor and survived with only minor injuries,' she said.
Several eyewitnesses claimed that people jumped from upper floors to escape the fire.
Rescue personnel reported that the black box of the aircraft has been recovered and will be crucial in determining the exact cause of the crash. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members, took off at 1:38 PM from runway 23.
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NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
Eerie Parallels Between Ahmedabad Crash And 1978 'Emperor Ashoka' Tragedy
New Delhi: The catastrophic crash of Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, into a residential area near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad on Thursday bears a startling resemblance to the plunge of Air India flight AI 855, the Emperor Ashoka, into the Arabian Sea off Mumbai nearly five decades ago. The Emperor Ashoka crash, 3 km off Mumbai, killed all 213 aboard. In both incidents, the aircraft crashed moments after departure. The 1978 Disaster On New Year's Day, 1978, Air India flight AI 855, named Emperor Ashoka, Air India's first Boeing 747, departed Santa Cruz International Airport (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport), Mumbai, bound for Dubai at 20:12 IST. The flight, carrying 190 passengers and 23 crew members, was delayed from its morning schedule due to a bird strike damaging a wing flap the previous day. Approximately one minute after takeoff from Runway 27, having been cleared to climb to 8,000 feet, the aircraft entered a gentle right turn over the Arabian Sea. The Captain's Attitude Director Indicator (ADI), the primary instrument displaying the aircraft's pitch and bank attitude relative to the horizon, malfunctioned. It remained fixed, indicating a right bank, even as the wings levelled. The Captain, 51-year-old Madan Lal Kukar, with nearly 18,000 flight hours, voiced immediate concern. The First Officer was Indu Virmani, 43, a former Indian Air Force commander with over 4,500 flight hours. Flight Engineer Alfredo Faria, 53, one of Air India's most senior engineers with 11,000 hours, observed the discrepancy between the Captain's ADI and the third, standby ADI. With the aircraft now over the Arabian Sea at night, no visual horizon reference existed. Relying on his malfunctioning ADI which still showed a right bank, Captain Kukar applied left control inputs to correct the perceived right bank. "My instruments,'' the pilot said suddenly, according to the recorder recovered from the wreckage. "Mine is also toppled," said the co-pilot. "No, but go by this, captain," Flight Engineer Faria warned. The warning went unheeded or was acted upon too late. The aircraft continued rolling left to an extreme bank angle of 108 degrees and entered a steep, approximately 35-40 degree nose-down descent from around 2,000 feet. It impacted shallow water, only 10 metres deep, approximately 3 kilometres offshore. All 213 on board died. According to a 1982 New York Times report, the official investigation concluded the probable cause was: "Irrational control wheel inputs given by the captain following complete unawareness of the attitude of the aircraft on his part after his ADI. had malfunctioned." The Ahmedabad Incident Forty-seven years later, in the afternoon of June 12, Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed within seconds of takeoff from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. Like AI 855, it plunged near the airport, this time into a residential area. Veteran pilot Captain Rakesh Rai who flew the same type of Dreamliner for Air India until last year, speaking exclusively to NDTV, noted the aircraft's undercarriage remained extended throughout its short, doomed flight. "His [pilot's] rate of rotation and the way he has climbed up is very normal. But something has gone wrong towards maybe an altitude of 400 to 500 feet. And the momentum has taken the aircraft to about 600 feet. At this point, the most surprising aspect of this take-off is that the undercarriage has not been retracted," he said. Captain Rai outlined several plausible scenarios. "What happens in a normal take-off is that the moment you start rotating the aircraft for take-off and the aircraft has left the ground, the instruments indicate a positive rate of climb. So, the co-pilot or the pilot monitoring gives a call, 'positive rate'. The pilot flying cross-checks that there has been a positive rate and he gives a call, 'gear up' for the landing gear to be retracted," he said. "But here, what you see is the undercarriage has not been retracted at all. So that raises a lot of questions as to what could be the reason behind the undercarriage not being retracted. We can only speculate. The actual reason behind that will come out only in the DFDR 9black box)," the veteran pilot told NDTV. At least 274 people have died as a result of the Ahmedabad crash, including 241 out of 242 on board.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Ahmedabad plane crash: Two black boxes recovered. What will the probe focus on?
Two black boxes from the wreckage of the ill-fated Air India flight 171 were recovered on Friday as investigators intensified efforts to determine what transpired in those 33 seconds mid-air that caused India's deadliest aviation disaster in three decades. Experts have raised concerns of possible technical faults, crew miscalculations, and configuration errors in the Boeing 787-8 plane. One of the black boxes was retrieved from the rooftop of a hostel mess building near the BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad, where the Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff on Thursday, killing 241 people on board. The second recorder was also located on Friday, and both are now being examined for clues, officials said. Follow Ahmedabad plane crash live updates. As experts from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) sifted through twisted metal and scorched debris, a team from Boeing joined the probe on-site. Parts of the aircraft's two General Electric GEnx engines are being sent to the United States for detailed analysis. The wreckage will be moved to a secure facility for reconstruction in collaboration with the AAIB, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and other agencies, an official familiar with the probe confirmed. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India's aviation regulator, has meanwhile ordered targeted safety inspections of all Air India Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 jets. The inspections will focus on six critical systems — fuel parameters, fuel flow systems, electronic engine controls, hydraulic systems, and takeoff performance settings. 'The order by the DGCA seems to have indicated their suspicion of all that could have led to the B787-8 crash on Thursday,' said aviation expert Amit Singh. 'While the checks mentioned by the DGCA are all performed by the pilots before take-off, they are only a few of the total checks performed. This could imply the regulator may have learnt about snags or probable issues with the aircraft,' he added. Officials involved in the investigation told the Associated Press that early indications suggest the aircraft may not have been correctly configured for takeoff. The landing gear was still extended during ascent, and flap components were found strewn across nearby roads in what appeared to be an incorrect take-off setting — factors that may have deprived the aircraft of critical lift. 'We can see what we see on video and all of these potential issues we're talking about: fuel, engine thrust, settings for the flaps and slats. That's all going to be recorded on the flight data recorder,' AP quoted aviation safety consultant Jeff Guzzetti, a former US crash investigator, as saying. He added, 'The cockpit voice recorder will hopefully have the discussion between the crew on what kind of performance numbers are being put into the computer.' Guzzetti and others believe investigators are likely probing whether the engines lost power during takeoff, whether the aircraft's weight and environmental conditions were correctly input, and whether the crew made configuration errors in setting the flaps and slats. 'The image shows the airplane with the nose rising and it continuing to sink,'' noted John M. Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems and a former pilot. 'That says that the airplane is not making enough lift.'' Cox added: 'It's hard to tell but from looking at the aircraft from behind … it doesn't look like that the trailing edge flaps are in the position I would have expected them to be. But I'm very cautious that the image quality is not good enough to make that a conclusion. It's just an area where I know that they're going to look.'' According to a Reuters report citing unnamed sources, the probe is examining potential faults related to engine thrust, flap settings, and the unusual fact that the landing gear remained extended — though a bird-hit has been ruled out as a primary cause. Maintenance issues and crew inputs are also under review. While officials caution that it is too early to arrive at conclusions, the focus of the investigation is sharpening around a combination of mechanical failure and human error.
India.com
2 hours ago
- India.com
David Warner Slams Air India After Ahmedabad Plane Crash: 'Will Never Fly With Them Again'
In a horrifying incident that has rocked the global aviation and sporting communities, Air India's flight AI 171 — a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner — crashed just moments after taking off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. Bound for London, the aircraft reportedly lost communication with air traffic control shortly after the pilot issued a distress 'May Day' call. Tragically, all 242 people on board, including 12 crew members, were killed in the crash, which occurred on the afternoon of June 13, 2025. — Akash Kharade (@cricaakash) June 14, 2025 Also Read: Meet Aiden Markram's Wife – Everything to Know About Nicole Daniella O'Connor, Jewellery Brand Owner & Lifestyle Icon The aircraft, under the command of experienced pilots Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kundar, had amassed over 9,300 flight hours between them. Despite their expertise, the crash has raised serious questions about the airline's operational safety protocols, aircraft maintenance, and overall crisis response. David Warner's Public Outcry: 'I Would Never Fly Air India Again' Reacting strongly to the tragedy, veteran Australian cricketer David Warner took to Instagram to vent his frustration and concern. Sharing a damning YouTube comment that questioned Air India's safety protocols, Warner wrote: 'If this is true, it's absolutely shocking. Thoughts go out to all the families. I would never fly Air India ever again after this and my last interaction with them.' Warner's statement quickly went viral across social media platforms, especially given his large Indian fan base and longstanding connection to the country through the IPL and brand endorsements. His public condemnation not only added global visibility to the crash but also ignited a broader conversation about Air India's safety track record and customer experience. Not the First Red Flag: Warner's Troubled Past With Air India Interestingly, this is not Warner's first negative experience with the Indian carrier. During a previous visit to India for a promotional campaign, the Australian star reportedly faced significant travel inconveniences while flying Air India — delays, lack of communication, and in-flight issues. This, coupled with the ongoing revelations post-crash, seems to have cemented his decision to avoid the airline permanently. Adding fuel to the fire, an ex-Air India employee, identified as Vivek, has come forward with disturbing claims. According to him, pilots, engineers, and crew members had long voiced concerns over recurring issues with Boeing aircraft and internal mismanagement. Despite escalating these warnings to top leadership, no corrective measures were implemented. Global Backlash: Air India Under Pressure Following the crash, Air India issued a statement confirming the nationalities of the victims — 169 Indians, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian were among the dead. But even with the airline's official communication, mounting criticism and questions about its safety standards have created a reputational crisis. Warner's high-profile commentary has amplified scrutiny. Aviation analysts suggest that public backlash from international figures like Warner may significantly impact Air India's global perception, passenger trust, and future ticket bookings — especially from international markets. David Warner: An Icon With Influence Beyond Cricket Warner's cricketing credentials are beyond question. Since his debut in 2009, the left-handed opener has been a cornerstone of Australia's batting lineup across formats — scoring 8,786 Test runs, 6,932 ODI runs, and 3,277 T20I runs. His words carry weight, not just in sporting circles but also among corporate sponsors, aviation stakeholders, and millions of followers worldwide. When Warner speaks, the world listens — and in this case, his words could have far-reaching implications for Air India's brand image and accountability.
