✕ Close Moment British survivor of Air India crash walks out of flames

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Investigators probing the deadly crash of Air India flight 171 in which more than 270 people were killed have found that the aircraft’s emergency power system was likely active just before impact.

The Wall Street Journal reported that this possibly suggested an engine or hydraulic failure during takeoff, a rare and serious event in commercial aviation.

However, the investigators were yet to determine whether engine, hydraulic, or other system failures activated the emergency power, according to the outlet, which cited people familiar with the probe.

Air India has cancelled 66 Dreamliner flights since the 12 June crash in Ahmedabad, Indian aviation regulator DGCA said on Tuesday.

The airline has also delayed multiple flights serviced by Boeing 787-8. It has attributed the interruptions to grounded aircraft, technical issues, restricted airspace, and heightened safety protocols.

The DGCA, meanwhile, has found no major flaws in Air India’s Dreamliners, but flagged maintenance delays and coordination issues.

Families in india”>India with concerns can call Air India on 1800 5691 444. Those outside India can call the British Foreign Office on 020 7008 5000.

✕ Close Moment British survivor of Air India crash walks out of flames

On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice

Investigators probing the deadly crash of Air India flight 171 in which more than 270 people were killed have found that the aircraft’s emergency power system was likely active just before impact.

The Wall Street Journal reported that this possibly suggested an engine or hydraulic failure during takeoff, a rare and serious event in commercial aviation.

However, the investigators were yet to determine whether engine, hydraulic, or other system failures activated the emergency power, according to the outlet, which cited people familiar with the probe.

Air India has cancelled 66 Dreamliner flights since the 12 June crash in Ahmedabad, Indian aviation regulator DGCA said on Tuesday.

The airline has also delayed multiple flights serviced by Boeing 787-8. It has attributed the interruptions to grounded aircraft, technical issues, restricted airspace, and heightened safety protocols.

The DGCA, meanwhile, has found no major flaws in Air India’s Dreamliners, but flagged maintenance delays and coordination issues.

Families in india”>India with concerns can call Air India on 1800 5691 444. Those outside India can call the British Foreign Office on 020 7008 5000.

How the Air India crash investigation is unfolding

12 hours ago Share Save Soutik Biswas • @soutikBBC India correspondent Share Save

Reuters The Air India Boeing 787, that crashed in Ahmedabad last week, seen here over Melbourne in December

Less than 40 seconds. That’s how long Air India Flight 171 was airborne before it plunged into a densely populated neighbourhood in Ahmedabad in one of India’s most baffling aviation disasters in recent memory. Investigators now face the grim task of sifting through the wreckage and decoding the cockpit voice and flight data recorders of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to piece together what went catastrophically wrong in the seconds after take-off. Under international rules set by the UN aviation body ICAO, a preliminary investigation report should be released within 30 days, with the final report ideally completed within 12 months. The London Gatwick-bound aircraft, piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kundar, lifted off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad at 13:39 local time (08:09 GMT) on Thursday, with 242 people and nearly 100 tonnes of fuel on board. Within moments, a mayday call crackled from the cockpit. It would be the last transmission. This was followed by a loss of altitude and a crash engulfed in flames. What could have caused Air India plane to crash in 30 seconds? Captain Kishore Chinta, a former investigator with India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), calls this “the rarest of the rare” crashes – a controlled flight into terrain just 30 seconds after take-off. “To my knowledge, nothing quite like this has ever happened,” he told the BBC. Did both engines fail due to bird strikes or fuel contamination? Were the flaps improperly extended, reducing lift on a heavily loaded jet in extreme heat? Was there a maintenance error during engine servicing? Or did an inadvertent crew action cut off fuel to both engines?

Reuters Indian Army engineers prepare to remove wreckage of the Air India flight in Ahmedabad

Investigators will be probing all these possibilities – and more. Air crash investigations rely on triangulation and elimination – matching physical evidence from the wreckage with recorded aircraft performance data to build a coherent picture of what went wrong. Every scorched cable, damaged turbine blade, aeroplane maintenance log, and signals and sounds from the flight data and cockpit voice recorders – the so-called “black box” – will be examined. The BBC spoke to accident experts to understand how the investigation will proceed.

Critically, the first clues on the ground may come from the wreckage of the two engines, at least three investigators said. “You can tell from the damage whether the engines were generating power at impact – turbines fracture differently when spinning at high speed,” says Peter Goelz, a former managing director of US’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). “That’s the first clue to what went wrong.” Turbines are crucial rotating components that play a key role in extracting energy to generate thrust. “If the engines weren’t producing power, investigators have a serious case on their hands – and the focus will shift sharply to the cockpit.” What happened in the cockpit will be revealed by the Boeing 787’s Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFRs) – or the “black boxes” – which, investigators say, will help tell the story. (Indian officials say the recorders have been recovered from the crash site.) These devices capture extensive flight data and cockpit audio – from pilot radio calls to ambient cockpit sounds. Voice recordings come from individual pilot mics, radio transmissions and an area microphone that picks up background noise in the cockpit. Data recorders track with high precision the position of gear and flap levers, thrust settings, engine performance, fuel flow and even fire handle activation.

Reuters The Boeing 787 slammed into a hostel for medical students outside the airport in Ahmedabad

“If the flight data recorder shows the engines were making full power, then the attention will move to the flaps and slats. If they are found to be extended as needed, then it becomes a very difficult investigation,” says Mr Goelz. Flaps and slats increase lift at lower speeds, helping an aircraft take off and land safely by allowing it to fly slower without stalling. “If [the trail leads] to a problem in the flight management control system, that would raise serious concerns – not just for Boeing, but for the entire aviation industry.” The Boeing 787’s flight management control system is a highly automated suite that manages navigation, performance and guidance. It integrates data from a number of sensors to optimise the aircraft’s flight path and fuel efficiency. With over 1,100 Boeing 787s flying worldwide since 2011, investigators must determine whether this was a systemic issue that could affect the global fleet – or a one-off failure unique to this flight, experts say. “If it points to a system problem, then the regulatory bodies have to make some tough decisions very quickly,” says Mr Goelz. So far, there is no indication of fault on anyone’s part. India’s civil aviation ministry said on Tuesday that a recent inspection of Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet – 24 of 33 aircraft have been checked so far – “did not reveal any major safety concern,” adding that the planes and maintenance systems complied with existing standards. Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg said on 12 June: “Boeing will defer to India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) for information on Air India Flight 171, in line with UN ICAO protocol.” Decoding of the data at the AAIB lab in Delhi will be led by Indian investigators, with experts from Boeing, engine-maker GE, Air India and Indian regulators. Investigators from the NTSB and UK will also be participating. “In my experience, teams can usually determine what happened fairly quickly,” Mr Goelz says. “But understanding why it happened can take much longer.” The wreckage may yield other clues. “Every part – wire, nut, bolt – will be meticulously collected,” says Mr Chinta. Typically, wreckage is moved to a nearby hangar or secure facility, laid out to identify the nose, tail and wingtips, and then pieced together. In this case, depending on what the flight data and voice recorders reveal, a full reconstruction may not be necessary, investigators say. The importance of wreckage varies by accident, say investigators. For Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, shot down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, it was crucial – reconstruction of the nose revealed clear shrapnel damage from a Russia-made missile.

Bloomberg via Getty Images The landing gear of Air India 171 at the site of the crash in Ahmedabad

The recent crash of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Ahmedabad has prompted widespread discussion about potential causes. As an expert with a background in aircraft design, I would not attempt to speculate on the cause of the incident. We should wait for the crash investigators to carry out a rigorous analysis.

Instead, I will explain the various flight scenarios currently being discussed in the public domain, and explore what each of them implies from the perspective of aircraft design and performance.

Understanding how such factors interact with aircraft systems and flight performance can shed light on how modern aircraft are designed to handle rare but critical situations.

Loss of engine thrust

Modern commercial aircraft are designed to safely continue takeoff and climb with one engine not operating. This is a fundamental certification requirement, particularly for twin-engine aircraft. It ensures that the loss of a single engine, even during the critical takeoff phase, should not result in a catastrophic failure.

However, the loss of both engines is an extremely serious scenario.

A notable case of dual engine failure occurred in 2001 on Air Transat Flight 236, which was travelling from Toronto, Canada, to Lisbon in Portugal. The Airbus A330 aircraft lost both engines over the Atlantic Ocean due to a fuel leak, but managed to glide approximately 75 miles (120km) before safely landing at Lajes Air Base in the Azores. This was possible because the aircraft had sufficient altitude and airspeed at the time of its total engine failure.

However, takeoff and landing are considered the most critical phases of flight because the aircraft is close to the ground, giving pilots limited time and altitude to respond to failures. At low speed and altitude, the aircraft may also lack the necessary energy (in terms of both airspeed and height) to glide a meaningful distance.

Bird strikes can also cause engine failure, as seen in the case of US Airways Flight 1549, an Airbus A320 that struck a flock of birds shortly after take off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport on January 15 2009. Both engines failed and, due to the aircraft’s low altitude and limited speed, the pilots determined that returning to the airport was not feasible.

Instead, pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles executed a successful emergency water landing on the Hudson River, resulting in the survival of all onboard. As such, the incident became known as the “miracle on the Hudson”.

These examples highlight how altitude, speed and pilot decision-making, along with robust aircraft design, play a critical role in the outcome of rare but severe engine failure events.

Landing gear not retracted

During a normal takeoff procedure, the landing gear – the sets of wheels under a plane that support it on the ground – is retracted within seconds after liftoff, once the aircraft has safely left the ground.

Extended landing gear produces significant aerodynamic drag. So, during the initial climb when the aircraft requires maximum thrust to gain altitude, eliminating this drag by retracting the landing gear is highly beneficial for both climb performance and fuel efficiency.

However, commercial aircraft are designed to remain controllable and flyable even if the landing gear fails to retract. In such cases, the aircraft should still be able to perform a “go-around” before safely landing again, assuming no other critical failures have occurred.

That said, a scenario involving both loss of engine thrust and non-retracted landing gear can severely degrade glide performance. The additional drag from the extended gear reduces the aircraft’s lift-to-drag ratio, an indication of the aerodynamic efficiency of the airplane.

The extended landing gear might limit the distance it can glide and increase its descent rate – which is especially critical when altitude is limited.

Flaps retracted prematurely

An aircraft’s ability to generate lift depends on several factors, including wing area, airspeed, altitude, and the “lift coefficient” – a number that describes how effectively a wing or other surface generates lift under specific flight conditions. The lift coefficient is largely influenced by the wing’s geometry, particularly its curvature (called camber).

During takeoff and landing, the aircraft operates at relatively low speeds where the wings alone may not generate enough lift. To compensate, high-lift devices such as flaps are deployed. These devices are usually mounted on the wings’ trailing edges and, when extended, increase each wing’s curvature and surface area, thereby raising the lift coefficient and allowing the aircraft to remain airborne at lower speeds.

However, deploying flaps also increases aerodynamic drag. For this reason, once the aircraft accelerates and reaches a safe climb speed, the flaps are gradually retracted to reduce drag and improve fuel efficiency.

If the flaps are retracted too early, before the aircraft has reached sufficient speed, there can be a sudden loss of lift. This may result in a stall or insufficient climb performance.

This situation becomes even more critical if it occurs in combination with other issues, such as extended landing gear (which increases drag) or a loss of engine thrust, as the combined aerodynamic penalties may prevent the aircraft from maintaining controlled flight.

Conclusion

Over the years, numerous improvements in aircraft design, maintenance and operational procedures have resulted from crash investigations. Each incident, especially a fatal one such as the Air India Boeing 787 crash, offers valuable lessons that can drive further enhancements in aviation safety.

The fact that both the aircraft’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder (sometimes referred to as the “black boxes”) have now been recovered offers hope that the precise cause of this crash will be identified.

Whatever is ultimately determined to be the cause – technical failure, human error, or a combination of both – there will be lessons to be learned. Every event highlights areas where systems, procedures or training can be strengthened to make aviation even safer in the future.

Wreckage of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner lies at the site where the Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Item 1 of 3 Wreckage of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner lies at the site where the Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

June 18 (Reuters) – The crash of an Air India Boeing (BA.N) , opens new tab 787 Dreamliner seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad city, killing all but one of the 242 people on board, is the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.

At least 30 people were also killed on the ground as the airliner crashed into a medical college hostel near the airport.

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The crash poses a fresh challenge for Air India , which has long sought to become a “world-class airline”, and Boeing , which is working to restore public trust after a series of safety and production crises.

CRASH, ANXIOUS FAMILIES AND RESCUE

* A 59-second CCTV video clip, one of the strongest pieces of visual evidence, showed the takeoff and the crash. The descent of the plane starts roughly 17 seconds after takeoff. There is no fire visible around the engine or elsewhere when the plane appears to start going down.

* There were 169 Indians, 53 Britons, 7 Portuguese, and one Canadian among the passengers on board . Twelve crew members were also on the plane.

* The only survivor was Viswashkumar Ramesh, 40, who was in seat 11A, near the emergency exit.

* Dozens of anxious family members are waiting to collect bodies of loved ones as doctors work to gather dental samples and do DNA profiling to identify bodies badly charred.

EARLY INVESTIGATION

* Air India and the Indian government are looking at issues linked to engine thrust, flaps, and why the landing gear remained open. The black boxes, crucial to the crash probe, have been recovered.

* India’s aviation safety watchdog has asked Air India for the training records of the pilots and dispatchers, while asking flying schools to conduct training compliance checks.

* Officials from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration officials, as well as Boeing and GE, have surveyed the crash site

* An inspection of Air India’s 787 fleet did not reveal any major issues, but the Indian aviation watchdog raised concerns about recent maintenance-related issues reported by the airline and advised the carrier to “strictly adhere to regulations”.

TRAGIC TALES

* The plane hit a college hostel building. When Reuters visited, some steel tumblers and plates containing food lay on the few tables that were left intact. Wheels and other parts of the aircraft were embedded in the walls.

* Ravi Thakor, a cook at the college hostel, and his wife have been praying for a ‘second miracle’ – just like the survival of the sole passenger – as he searches for his two-year-old daughter, whom he had rocked to sleep before stepping out 30 minutes before the crash to deliver lunch boxes.

Lawrence Christian , a 30-year-old working in Britain, had flown to India to bury his father, but just two weeks later, his family will have to bury him. His grandmother grieved the loss of “light of our home.”

INSIDE AIR INDIA

* Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ head Stephanie Pope visited India and met Air India Chair N. Chandrasekaran at the airline’s headquarters.

* Chandrasekaran also held a town hall meeting with 700 staff saying the Tata Group-owned airline should use the crash as a catalyst to build a safer airline.

* In another incident, an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane bound for New Delhi returned to its origin of Hong Kong after takeoff on June 16 following a technical issue.

Compiled by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai and Sai Ishwarbharath B in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Raju Gopalakrishnan

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