24. August 2025
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After the Intermediate Report has been released – My Thoughts About the Air India 171 Incident

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

It is more than a month ago since we all had a certain focus on Ahmedabad in India. Air India Flight 171, which was supposed to fly from Ahmedabad Airport (AMD) to London Gatwick (LGW), crashed into the ground just less than a nautical mile after departure. The Indian Air Accidens Investigations Branch (AAIB) has released a preliminary report on Friday night. I am typically not covering these types of events, but as many people asked me about it, I give my thoughts about how the accident will impact me and my flight behavior and how I feel about it in general.

I have to state that I don’t have practical cockpit experience apart from some simulator training hours. I am rather knowledgeable in that topic and a frequent flyer, though. Additionally, you know that due to my addiction to Indian tennis, this event did impact me in a very emotional way.

 

Air India 171 – What Has Happened

On 12th June 2025, Air India AI 171 was scheduled to fly from Ahmedabad Airport (AMD) to London Gatwick (LGW). Also due to the long flight distance, it was loaded close to the max load. At 08:07:33 UTC, i.e. 13:37:33 local time, it received take of clearance. It reached V1, the speed at which you have to take off, without issues a minute later and briefly thereafter VR, the speed at which you have to rotate, i.e. to initiate the take-off. With only three seconds in the air, the two engine cutoff switches were moved from run to cutoff within a second. This stops fuel flow into the turbines and thus rather quickly eliminates the thrust provided. With just one engine still running, any professional plane is still about to take off safely.

The preliminary report mentions that one of the pilot is asking why he cut off the engine and the other one (not stating who is who) denied that he did so. The automated systems to gain electric energy deployed quickly. The are namely the so-called RAT (Ram Air Turbine), a propeller below the body of the plane, and the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU). Ten seconds after the fuel of both engines has been cutoff, one of the pilots could switch on the flow for the left engine and four seconds later also for the right one. This was too late to regain a necessary level of thrust to recover the airplane. The plane crashed into the ground and into a medical building. Out of 320 passengers and 12 crew member, only one passenger survived. Additionally, the impact killed 19 people on the ground. It was the first fatal crash by a Boeing 787.

 

Air India 171 – How Could That Happen?

The Boeing 787-8, registered as VT-ANB, was comparably new and delivered in 2013. It had its last Airworthness Review in May 2025. As other main or side courses of the crash, e.g. a speculation for issues with the fuel, are eliminated by the preliminary report, one can focus on the cutoff switches. They have special mechanisms to avoid that they are moved my accident, e.g. turbulence. Majorly, there are two reasons why the switches have been moved to cut-off:

  • A technical issue, e.g. electrical or mechanical, which allowed the switches to move.
  • An intentional action by one of the people in the cockpit.

Especially as both switches failed in parallel, the probability for the first scenario is extremely low. There has been a service bulletin majorly for other Boeing planes, but in general valid for the B787 as well, that the switches may have issues if they are not built in correctly. The preliminary report does not mention additional persons in the cockpit. It also does not indicate that one or both engines faded already before the cutoff switches has been moved. In case of a dual engine failure for other reasons, you would indeed move these switches to cut-off. However, you would move them back to the Run position, trying to re-initiate the engines to run and produce thrust.

Under these circumstances, a conscious decision by one of the persons in the flight deck is the by far most probable (but so far not certain) scenario. As the Indian AAIB also states in the report that they will make use of aviation psychologists to finalize the report, this indicates that the investigation is leaning towards this direction. Nonetheless, there are some events which suggest that this plane crash was not based on active human behavior. The final report will at least take a couple of months to be released. Especially a detailed transcript of the dialogs in the cockpit will be interesting.

 

Air India 171 – My Thoughts

Of course, these results of the preliminary report make one think of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525. On 24th March 2025, the copilot of the flight from Barcelona (BCN) to Dusseldorf (DUS) made use of a bathroom break of the pilot and intentionally directed the plane into the French Alps. All passengers and the crew died on that day.

Of course, you can increase the level of psychological care for pilots and crew members. Finally, I feel that incidences like this one are hard to avoid, though. Regardless if you fly, take a train, a ferry, or a car – you are always also dependent on the condition and attitude of others. After the Air India 171 incident, I had multiple flights, including long-haul ones. I did not feel unsafe. I would rather state that the AI 171 crash made me more aware of that dependency on the crew and the level of trust you have to give to a cabin crew, as well as the drivers of other vehicles.

My Aftermath

Especially in aviation, any kind of incident is also leading to discussions how to make air travel safer. Maybe incidences like AI 171 should make us think about our own life. We will likely not end up in a sabotaged or suicide flight one day. But we should care about each other more. The world has become very egoistic. It is becoming more and more important to represent that you are strong.

You see that on Instagram and TikTok, where beautiful people giving you useless messages are more popular than people who want to make you reflect. You see that on the streets when driving a car. People become more and more selfish and care less about the integrity and health of others. Care about the others. Ask How are you – not in a typical American way which does not really expects a truthful answer. Sometimes it is good to listen, to take care. It might make your life better – by making the other of others better.

 

Title picture: sample picture of an Air India Boeing 787. Picture by Ayan Zaman, licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0

 

Flyctory.com and India

Here are all my posts related to India:

 

All “classic” blog posts

No reviews – just debating and certain topics – these are my “traditional” blog posts in the categories Just blogging, Just blogging on music and Sports Blogging:

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