Another Aircraft Accident in Indian Soil – Takes a big toll; calls for a review of rapidly expanding Aviation wherewithal

Air India – AI -171 IllFated or …. what?

Having been Airport Director with 46 years observing aviation in aviation positions, the tragedy is like no other for Indian aviation. Having seen quite a number of aircraft accidents my self and also seen one even during my tenure at Chennai International Airport, it makes goose bumps any time the words “Sir, so and so flight …… has declared emergency’ were heard in my walkie talkie either in office or at house during off office hours.

Suffice it to say, it was very unusual, looking at the circumstances and sequence of events that led to perishing 241 on board and 33 lives on ground taking the toll to 274. In my articles when Ukraine-Russia Conflict claimed the flights of Azerbaijan airline which too extinguished in a jiffy had collected some stats of lives lost in a series of air crashes that occured during close of 2024 and onset of 2025. It was at that time approx 284 just at the beginning of the new year. Now add this mammoth number of Air India 787.

What is important to note is, it is the first ever 787 dream-liner that met this ill-fate and with that all but one lives were lost affecting thousands of families across the globe. Whatever, the theories and revelations be, the small little problems of lack of air conditioning, bad seats, bad service etc may be aired, the technical work up of the plane has been perfect with the comfort and even the take-off and landings, very smooth most of the times. like so many, I did travel on this plane on few journeys.

What also strikes the most is, when there was no issue in the flying capability of the equipment from Delhi-Ahmedabad, what suddenly went wrong on the AHM-GATWICK leg? All people in know of flying know that the aircraft undergoes (besides the manufactured equipment) stringent inspections, checks as soon as it lands and before it is declared fit to take on another journey by airline-Engineering with acceptances in internationally accepted ICAO-IATA codes. Move further, before the plane takes off, the Commander and Co Pilot test and check each and every procedure in their cockpit (the machine is fly by wire) and then only go is given.

Therefore, it is clearly visible that the thrust failure has taken place just after starting take off run. While the CVR & FDR will reveal the exact sequence of events, there was no time left to the pilots to take salvage or abort the take off and it impacted the building just out of the airport boundary in an inhabited area.

Nevertheless, the response time looked to be satisfactory while the impact was such huge that there was bleak possibility of saving either the passengers in the aircraft or in the hostel. The impact caused instant aircraft blast with so much of fuel on board.

The Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu, the Home Minister, Shri Shah, The CM Shri Bhupendra Patel and even the PM, Modi all took the incident in its seriousness and ordered various inquiries besides the mandatory AIIB including an inspection of all 34 dream-liners in Air India Fleet is like a clockwork.

The action by ‘Adani Airport Holdings, the AHM airport operator is also worth mentioning for meticulously handling the entire scenario.

A point in sight is why there was almost double the fuel in aircraft. It could be that AI wanted it to have return fuel too obviating the need for fuelling at Gatwick. An airline decision! Another, issue to check would be load planning calculations. Whether there was a figure missed which was untrue or by mistake.

A crash at Chennai International Airport

There was one aircraft incident involving an ATP flight at Chennai in 2007 which crashed on the main runway. This was one serious one besides a number of emergency landings every day in the life of the Airport Director which keeps his always in a bit tensed position. The responsibility of the Airport Director was to remove disabled aircraft within shortest time, repair the damage to runway and other equipment and restore operations at airport.

Well, I took all other flights on the secondary runway (though it was short not fit for Airbus or 787 type of aircraft. But for call of duty, taking charge of the crash emergency and with every concerned agency cooperation, I was able to restart full aircraft operations in 90 minutes. A record. Luckily, both pilots were safe! a sigh of relief for me.

But AI 171 had probably no escape from the fatal fate. While we pray for the departed souls and pray for the survivors of the passengers to have courage to face situation, let the reasons of the crash come out upon accident inquiry.

On the timing of the inquiry report the Aircraft inquiry reports take unusually long period of time at times a year or more. My thoughts expressed have been that ICAO-IATA impress upon to limit the time for this to arrive at a primary report within 3 months and full report within 6 months. Reason is to take as much precautions which emanate from the evidence based assessment report. Otherwise, more the time of report, the intervening long period exposes thousands of flight operations by that particular type of aircraft putting millions of lives on edge.

Compensation cannot get the dead nor it can replace their blank for the relatives but announcement of Air India must be fulfilled asap.

With Hopes and Prayers

Prof Dinesh Kumar, IAP

Asia Aviation Associates