"I Grew Up Watching Air Crash Investigations. Then AI171 Happened!"

 

Image Credit: airlinesfleet.com

We often hear that flying is the safest means of transport, and this is indeed true. However, one day, something unexpected happened, and it became a reality for one person sitting in seat 11A on Air India flight 171. In less than a minute after take-off, this journey turned into a tragedy - a tragedy which no one had even imagined. Something so rare happened that no one could’ve predicted it, and an event that had the lowest probability, and the plane came to the ground and shattered into pieces, and we lost around 240 people's precious lives. This isn't a crash story; this is something that is raising more questions than answers. It questions the very system built to protect us, what happens when the technology meant to ensure our safety ends up failing us instead?

                I had a different relationship with planes. I live in an area where I see the airplanes extending their landing gears as they are getting near the airport. With this, I see many planes of various colours and countries' names. While growing up, I used to watch a show on "Air Crash Investigation", this show aired on the Discovery channel that showed different airplane crashes and how the investigators use the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder to analyse how this crash happened and why. This show gave a lot of knowledge about airplanes and their workings. With all the knowledge, this show also gave me one reason not to fly in airplanes. You can call this fear, but yes, it is real. I used to think that these episodes were showing history, and at that time, the technology was not that great, but then the "AI171 crash happened!" This crash gave goosebumps to everyone.

                "It’s safer to be 35,000 feet in the air than to be on a two-lane highway on Earth." This gave me motivation; the fatality of odds in a commercial plane is 1 in 11 million. Every day, around 1,00,000 flights take off and land without any issue. Aircraft today are flying computers designed with redundancies, emergency protocols, and decades of innovation. So much innovation and upgrades in the aircraft, related to their sensors, controls, technology, but still something like "AI171" happens, which shakes us deeply. After this crash happened, only one person survived, who was sitting in seat 11A. It is a seat near the wings and closest to the emergency exit, and now I am listening on the internet that people are ready to pay more money for this seat as it is the safest seat. Truth is, safety isn’t in a seat number, it’s in everything working as it should, from systems to people.

                Air India Flight 171 took off from Ahmedabad, bound for Delhi, around 1:38 PM. It was a typical afternoon. The aircraft: a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, one of the most advanced planes in the sky. But it climbed for a few seconds and then both engines shut down. The pilot declared MAYDAY (which is an emergency signal) and after a few seconds, the aircraft crashed into a hostel of the medical college in Ahmedabad. Around 240 lives were lost. There was deep silence, and the world waited for answers. A 15-page preliminary report dropped on July 12, 2025. It revealed a series of rare and shocking events. Both fuel-control switches on the engines were flipped from “RUN” to “CUTOFF” just after take-off, which caused instantaneous dual engine failure. In the cockpit voice recording, one pilot was saying, "Why did you cut off?" and the other responded in denial. The report confirmed that the RAT was deployed. Let’s dive deeper into this, as we have all the events with details.

                This flight was on the runway, ready to fly. Engines turned on, and the aircraft started going forward. The aircraft took more distance than usual to take off, as it was full of fuel and it had a long journey to complete. After going up for a few seconds, the pilot declared loss of power, the RAT was deployed, and the plane started coming down. After a few seconds, there was silence all over. Talking more about aircraft: 

• Firstly, talking about the distance on the runway, this plane took almost all the runway, but usually this amount of runway is taken by an aircraft that is running on a single engine.
• Secondly, RAT is Ram Air Turbine, which is deployed automatically when there is dual engine failure to keep some power in the aircraft that can be used to land in an emergency. It is a small turbine located in the lower central section.
• Thirdly, when the fuel control switches are turned off, pilots have a few seconds to turn them back on, but if pilots don't turn them back on in that time, the fuel to the engine will stop. Then there will be only one thing to do, that is, Engine Relight (Engine Restart Midair) which means to restart engine if they are in high altitude.
•  Also, there is always a checklist to perform, which is performed by pilots to ensure everything is under their supervision and they are doing everything that has been taught.
•  The engines are so strong in an aircraft that the aircraft can reach its destination on a single engine, too.

           After this tragedy, there were a lot of cases when aircraft returned due to technical errors and faults. People were afraid to travel in an aircraft. Pilots are calling for stricter testing of onboard software and control systems because it is a concern for the safety of a lot of people. Talking about the report, the report didn't answer the questions:

• Why did both switches flip at the same time?
• Was it accidental? Any type of Mechanical issue?  
• Was it a design flaw that should’ve been addressed earlier?

And there are more questions arising towards AI171, and we will get the answers in the reports that will come later; until then, it is a mystery.

     In the morning, I used to watch different planes flying across the sky. “Air India, Qatar Airways, DHL, SpiceJet, British Airways” written on them with different color schemes on the planes. I always see the landing gears coming out; How satisfying it looks! Sometimes the same plane comes again with landing gears out. It looks normal with no worries, but now I have even heard people saying, "There's always a moment of fear when a plane passes overhead, which is flying lower than usual.” There is a fear among people who aren't even in the plane. I would also like to address that people are paying for the tickets, they are paying to reach their destination, and it is their right to have a safe journey to their destination. At last, I would say that we have better planes, more tech, and more experienced pilots than ever before. And yet, even with all of that, AI171 still happened. Every failure becomes a lesson. Every crash, every report, every unanswered question becomes fuel, not for fear, but for change. Let’s hope that in the future, advancements in aviation technology continue to evolve in a way that prevents tragedies like this, so that every passenger can board a flight not with fear, but with peace of mind!