Ahmedabad Plane Crash: The Human Tragedy of Flight 171

June 12, 2025, will be a black day in Indian Aviation history with the tragedy at Ahmedabad (AMD) airport, when the Air India B787 Dreamliner, VT-ANB, bound for London Gatwick airport with 230 passengers and 12 crew, took off at 1339 IST (0809 GMT) and dropped from the skies, in a giant fireball onto a medical college hostel 2km from the AMD airport. 

The commander Captain Sumeet Sabharwal had 8000 flight hours to his name; along with him was Captain Clive Kunder, a young pilot from an aviators' family, starting out on his career, with 1100 hours to his name. The pilot gave out a Mayday signal as he took off, and it was visible to most observers from the videos of the incident that the climbing aircraft had no thrust, and was losing power and lift, crashing atop a medical college hostel a few seconds later. Ironically on the 15 June, the Aviation ministry released the text of the Mayday & ACARS message from the Captain.

바카라�MAYDAY바카라� MAYDAY바카라� MAYDAY바카라� NO POWER바카라� NO THRUST바카라� GOING DOWN바카라�바카라� said his message.

The flight was over in 32 seconds, 241 people lost their lives on the aircraft, and at least 35 were reported dead and 70 injured or missing from the college hostel, with one miraculous survivor who walked out of the burning plane wreck. The plane carried 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, 7 Portuguese nationals and one Canadian national. 

Poor Maintenance or Pilot Error  

The immediate cry from many air India critics was 바카라�poor maintenance바카라� of Air India planes, some social media wannabes even showed videos of the flight into AMD having broken USB ports & IFE screens that didn바카라�t work.  

Commentators and critics alike, do not realise that in aviation, engineering and maintenance are distinct and separate for air frames and avionics and separate for the internal cosmetic items. The former affects the safety of the aircraft and the flight; the latter are service and cosmetic related and do not have a bearing on the safety of a flight. 

For the record Air India바카라�s engineering standards have always been of the highest world standards as have been their pilots.  

 In fact, in the wake of the tragedy, the DGCA announced enhanced safety checks on the 787 fleet and 28 of the 34 flying B787s of Air India passed with flying colours, other than some remarks on lack of enough backup spares of some parts, which have been restricted due to a global aviation supply chain shortage.

Pilot Error 

There were many voices that came forth to brand it pilot error, prominent amongst them, foreign pilots, speaking for unknown sources. The entire narrative was played out after looking at raw videos and sought to string the two dead men, for their act of sacrifice. 

Theories from pilot error to contaminated fuel to sabotage by Turkish engineers did the rounds, all clamouring for TRPs, eyeballs and sensationalising the tragedy, across multiple TV channels. Another channel kept picking on the Turkish connection for engineering contracts and tried to push the narrative that it was a deliberate act of sabotage. 

The closest possible conclusion was failure of both engines and loss of power, lift and thrust due to some electric, electronic or hydraulic failure. But even though this matched the pilot바카라�s Mayday message, saying it was like hazarding a guess, without concrete evidence, which can only come from deciphering of the CVR and DFDR. 

Similar Accidents  

Aviation is strange, as almost every new accident brings us new learnings and new safety protocols as this one does. To have a twin-engine failure is considered the rarest of the rare, assuming it was a twin-engine failure!  

There have been significant examples of twin engine failures like 바카라�Miracle on the Hudson바카라�.  There have been older accidents, too. However, the reasoning for each multi-engine failure has been different. Given below is a list of a few of the 55 recorded incidents of multiple engine failures or shutdowns in aviation history. 

22/5/2020 바카라� PIA -8303 바카라� DUAL ENGINE FAILURE 

28/11/2016 바카라� LAMIA 바카라� 2903- DUAL ENGINE FAILURE- FUEL EXHAUSTION 

4/2/2015 -  TRANSASIA -235 -  (WRONG ENGINE SHUTDOWN) 

3/6/2012 바카라� DANA AIR 바카라� 0992 바카라� DUAL ENGINE FAILURE 

15/1/2009 바카라� US AIR 바카라� 1549 - DUAL ENGINE FAILURE DUE BIRDS  

14/10/2004 바카라� PINNACLE AIRLINES 바카라� 3701 바카라� DUAL ENGINE FAILURE OUTSIDE ENVELOPE 

16/1/2002 바카라� GARUDA INDONESIA 바카라� 421 바카라� DUAL ENGINE DUE INGESTION OF HAIL / WATER 

27/2/2001 바카라� LOGAN AIR 670A 바카라� DUAL ENGINE FAILURE 

One also remembers the Concorde explosion on take-off in a similar situation in Charles de Gaulle airport on 25 July 25, 2000, where both left-hand side engines 1 and 2 exploded with a fuel rupture caused by debris and engulfed the aircraft in a fireball immediately on take-off.  

That flight, AF-4590, took off but suffered loss of thrust, and high drag from its extended landing gear, making it impossible to control. The aircraft crashed into a hotel, all passengers and crew died on the spot, as well as four hotel staff. This single accident brought about the demise of the world's most successful supersonic aircraft. 

Analysts have suggested that the most critical parts of any flight are landing phase and the take-off roll (which this aircraft had just entered). The maximum accidents occur during this golden phase of flight, and AI-171 was no exception.  

The DGCA Reaction 

The DGCA reaction was about all they could do in the circumstances, but in hindsight, they appeared to be like a deer caught in the headlights. The DGCA is heavily understaffed and ill-equipped for accidents of this magnitude, and the government needs to change that. 

India needs a regulator who is an aviation expert, not a bureaucrat and an organisation that is founded on aviation principles and not bureaucratic dividend. It also needs a self-sufficient fully funded independent safety mechanism.  

The DGCA itself has 50 per cent vacancies and that speaks poorly of the government바카라�s actions in keeping pace with the burgeoning traffic and the explosive aviation growth that India is witnessing.  

Pilot Skills and Pilot Fatigue  

Air India has some of the best pilots in the world, this is my personal experience and knowledge from my 40 years in aviation. I do confess to growing up with some of India's best Air Force pilots who joined Air India, and then their children, some of my closest childhood friends, who became crack pilots at Air India. That was the culture at JRD Tata's Air India and continued well through the mid 1980s and right up to this date.  

It is probably a well-known fact that Air India trained Singapore Airlines Crew at its training centre in Kalina and sent observers to Singapore in the early 1970s, when Singapore Airlines was formed after the Malaysian breakaway. What is not widely known, however, is the fact that Air India pilots were sent on deputation to a newly born Singapore Airlines, which began getting their new Boeing 747s, to train their pilots. Hence, there can be no questioning Air India바카라�s tough pilot standards. 

It is because of those skills and standards that pilot and crew fatigue become all the more important.  Pilot and crew fatigue and stress are real, and the pilots of AI-171 were not fatigued in any way. The larger discussion that has to be had in India is the delay in implementation of the new pilots' FDTL CAR. The DGCA's hesitation to bring it into force and airlines requesting the High Court for a delay in implementation are all unacceptable aspects in my opinion.  

This might sound controversial, but I was asked by a pilot trainer from Cathay Pacific, 바카라�Why a two-man crew to London? It should have been a 3-man crew?바카라� My investigations led to the fact that not too long ago Vistara operated with a 3-man cockpit crew, and yet post-merger, Air India operates with a 2-man crew. This is not in any way to suggest that the 2-man crew was insufficient or incapable, but three pairs of eyes are better than two. Fatigue amelioration is also greater, and if any system is about adapting the best practices of the industry, then airlines must adopt it. After all, flight safety is no accident. 

The other two aspects, unconnected to this crash, but a serious issue for the DGCA to consider, are FDTL dispensations and crew rest on board. The long dispensations granted to airlines over the closure of Pakistani air space, and the move to remove crew rest areas from medium and long-haul aircraft when they have been in place since 1970, when they were introduced by J.R.D. Tata. 

We have had air space closures during Kargil and again during Balakote, as also during the volcanic explosions in Europe. The tendency to grant dispensation is short term and immediate. However, the medium term has to give way to following time- tested norms of standard FDTL. Kargil air closure continued for almost two years, and the dispensation was barely for two weeks, airlines adapted the new normal and built in stopovers, similar was the case with Balakote and Cairo. 

787 Snags  

Much has been made of the three or four flights returning due to faults or technical issues.  The DGCA had mandated additional checks and has cleared all the flying aircraft. Twenty-seven of the 35 Boeing 787 Dreamliners have been cleared by the DGCA without any significant issues. However, we need to realise that the 787 is a machine and could be prone to sudden degradation of a particular part or a system even though it was fine a few hours earlier.  

The bigger issue which the nation is silent on is stress and emotional trauma.  

 A number of cabin crew have reported sick, resigned or put in their papers after this crash out of fear. This figure could be more than a 100. 

I have spoken to pilot friends and some of them are suffering PTSD or trauma, due to the images and accident. What is needed is real time medical trauma counselling for the pilots and crew. The sight of death never leaves one's conscience, and this is my personal experience.  

This tragedy was India바카라�s first Instagram tragedy that played out across multiple social media platforms and impacted so many. It's time we look deeper at the human aspect of aviation too. 

Here are some excerpts from social media posts and articles that caught my attention, which capture the human impact. 

바카라�Having seen multiple crashes and accidents over 40 years, and been at the scene of Kanishka at Ireland and the Mangalore and Kozhikode tragedies, the Mumbai flaming evacuation and a few other minor accidents, I have seen up close and personal how traumatic the victim identification process can be바카라�  

바카라�The impact of a tragedy like this has multiple aspects, on the families, on the citizenry, and the pilots and crew of the Airline. The untold grief that encompasses the colleagues and airline personnel is an aspect we don바카라�t speak about, but PTSD is real. The counselling and care required for those friends, colleagues and even flyers from other airlines, is something we in India have not yet grasped, but need to appreciate. Our society needs to mature and accept that all of us develop deeply embedded trauma of tragic accidents like this and the sights, sounds and smell of death never leaves you. It still sits deep in my psyche though I lost my entire family in the Air India Kanishka bombing 40 years ago.바카라� 

바카라�There is also the fear psychosis and ultra sensitivity that enters the minds of aviation professionals after an accident or tragedy of this magnitude, resulting in multiple faults being detected, over cautiousness in operations and fear that this could reoccur again. Grief Counselling and stricter checks are the need of the hour.바카라� 

바카라�It is not as though Air India airframe and avionics engineering is poor, on the contrary it is one of the best in the world, it is the element of ultra sensitivity and cautiousness that guides every action. Going back forty years, there were at least 11 bomb scares in the wake of the Kanishka that caused groundings and checks. Post 911 we saw the scrambling of fighter jets in multiple countries across the world, whenever any aircraft strayed from their flight paths, post Kozhikode, there were many go arounds and instances of diversions of aircraft, during even the slightest of weather phenomena. The caution and concern are real and is heightened in this social media reel driven world, where images of the mushroom explosion are vivid in many viewers minds, the instances replayed over and over again, giving rise to many concerns바카라�. 

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is one of the most advanced aircraft flying today, with over 1175 of them flying in the skies, having flown over 5 million flights, which is equivalent to 32 million hours of flying.  

The AI-171 is the first tragedy of the 787 Dreamliner and will be investigated deeply, especially as the preliminary visual of most experienced aviators appears to be that for some reason, the aircraft suffered a catastrophic dual-engine failure, leading to loss of thrust and power, whether it was due to electronic, electrical, hydraulic or fuel failure, or ingestion of objects. Whether these were the causes or whether this was indeed a case of human error, we will not know until data from the black box has been thoroughly analysed and assessed and finds its way into a report. 

As of the time of going to press, the information we have is that the black box is damaged beyond repair and cannot be deciphered in India. It is being taken to Washington by the NTSB team and will be accompanied by a DGCA & AAIB team to ensure security of the data. 

AI-171 will be remembered for many reasons, as it is one of the worst tragedies of our generation, 40 years after Kanishka, yet the enduring image will be of that of the miraculous survivor who walked out amidst the flaming inferno of an aircraft. It will also be the miracle of how a dusty Bhagvad Gita was found on the floor of the aircraft, untouched by the flames. It will be the story of how two brave pilots and 10 crew tried their very best in the desperate circumstances to save hundreds of families. But for the 241people who were on board the flight and those who were killed and severely injured on the ground, life came to a full stop on that fateful day.

(Sanjay Lazar is an aviation analyst, lawyer & author who writes on International Relations, Aviation and Law. He has spent 40 years in aviation and he lost his entire family in the Air India Kanishka bombing in 1985)