the Boeing 787 Dreamliner the pride of
modern aviation rotates on the runway
with 242 lives aboard with the engines
at takeoff thrust suddenly the engines
go to idle as the weight comes off the
wheels speed rapidly bleeds off a
desperate mayday mayday echoes then
silence just 36 seconds after takeoff
all but one are gone this is Air India
flight 171 the first fatal crash of a
787 what caused this catastrophe and
what does it mean for an airline
grappling with recent disruptions and
what might a computer have to do with it
well stay with me this is a tragedy we
need to unpack piece by piece with the
latest facts on this episode of Taking
hey everyone Dan Milikin here and I'm
diving into the heart-wrenching story of
Air India Flight 171 which crashed in a
metabad on June 12th 2025 as an aviation
reporter I've covered incidents before
but this one hits really hard almost 300
lives lost the deadliest air disaster in
a decade and the first fatal crash of
Boeing's 787 Dreamlininer my focus is
accuracy so we're sticking to verified
facts no speculation we're drawing from
the wreckage the evidence and the
ongoing investigation and what
investigators are looking at we'll
explore the 787's history Air India's
maintenance record we'll hear from my
friend Noel Phillips about his
experience flying on an Air India 787
recent flight disruptions and we'll
explain the FedEx system for non-pilots
the computer system that controls the
engines and finally we'll look at an
extreme miracle that one passenger had
spoiler alert he did not jump from the
airborne plane let's honor the victims
by getting all this right and learning
what we can to save lives
the Boeing 787 Dreamlininer launched in
2011 redefined longhaul aviation with
its lightweight composite fuselage
advanced aerodynamics and 20% better
fuel efficiency than older jets
conceived in 2003 as the 7E7 it became
the 787 in 2005 offering a range of
miles powered by General Electric GX or
Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines the 787-8
the model in this crash seats 248 to 256
passengers with Air India's
configuration for 256 in two classes by
June 2025 Boeing had delivered 1189 of
over 2500 ordered 787s to airlines like
all Nepon Airways ANA United many others
around the world and Air India which
operates 34 that they have 27 787-8s
development of the 787 was rocky i know
shocker hearing that about anything
Boeing these days boeing's outsourcing
led to supply chain delays pushing the
first flight from 2008 to December of
2009 cost overruns hit billions but the
787's delivery to ANA in 2011 was a
milestone personally I've flown as a
passenger on the 787 many times and it's
one of my favorite airplanes early
issues included in 2013 lithium ion
battery fires that grounded the fleet
until they had fixes and a 2013
Ethiopian Airlines fire at Heathrow from
a faulty transmitter rolls-royce engine
corrosion and a 2024 LAM Airlines
mid-flight dive due to a pilot seat
glitched raised concerns but no
fatalities had occurred a 2024
whistleblower Sam Capore alleged
fuselage assembly shortcuts prompting
the FAA reinspections though Boeing's
tests showed no immediate risks until
flight 171 the 787 had no fatal crashes
or hull losses across 2.3 million
flights and 22 million passengers
the crash aircraft Victor Tango Alpha
November Bravo a 12-year-old 787-8
delivered in January of 2014 had 41,000
flight hours and 7,400 cycles which is
typical for its age it flew 700 trips in
the past year including Mumbai to Dubai
and Delhi to Paris with its last sea
check in June of 2023 and the next one
due in December 2025 the Cch check is a
thorough detailed maintenance inspection
on commercial aircraft typically every
18 to 24 months or after a set number of
flight hours or cycles this first fatal
787 crash has stunned the industry
raising more questions about Boeing and
Air India and leading investigators to
check out the FedEx system which we'll
get to in a bit but first background on
Air India it was founded 1932 by JRD
Tata air India was nationalized in 1953
and grew into a global carrier it was
privatized in 2022 under Tata Group and
it operates 190 plus aircraft including
58 Boeings with 470 new jets on order
including 20 787s its 2024 merger with
Vistara aims to modernize but aging
planes and delivery delays persist air
India's safety record is mixed notable
crashes include the 1985 Flight 182
bombing where 329 died a 2010 Mangalore
overrun that resulted in 158 deaths and
a 2020 Kerala skid where 17 people died
maintenance issues have drawn scrutiny
uh India's equivalent FAA audit flagged
inadequate upkeep leading to fines a
2023 report cited maintenance staff
shortages though recent investments from
that merger have improved the training
in the facilities according to the Times
logs show compliance but investigators
are probing potential lapses the
National Security Guard has ruled out
sabotage i reached out to my friend and
travel expert Null Phillips who has some
experience flying on Air India 787s to
get his feedback about the airline and
the airplane null yeah thanks Dan so
yeah I've flown Air India a few times
actually on domestic and international
flights on their A320s the trip 7s and
yeah the 787s too and from my experience
well they're all a bit worn out really
even on the newest planes with the 787
and honestly considering it was a nearly
new plane at the time it was in a really
horrendous state on board the seats were
falling to bits honestly it was filthy
as well i remember the APU wasn't
working and um I had to use the ground
power unit to get us going it's not
something that is that uncommon but it
just was something that I noticed at the
time i guess honestly I've flown Air
India again recently they were a bit
better but they've still got quite a way
to go in my opinion and they're
undergoing some sort of brand refresh at
the minute they've got some new owners
they're buying some A350s and some X
Delta trip 7s which honestly I flew on
they weren't too bad but they still have
quite a lot of these older planes in the
fleet and yes I'm including the 787s in
that because the state of the one I flew
on it made it feel like a much older
aircraft than it actually was honestly
it is completely tragic what happened to
this flight though i mean we have to
think and be so careful not to speculate
too much because the end of the day 250
people lost their lives really sad but I
think we need to just let the
investigators do their jobs and we'll
wait for the outcome um I suppose the
only benefit of it really is that just
like every time we have a tragedy like
this in the aviation world well we end
up learning from it and if that's all we
can hope for I guess at least it makes
us all a little bit safer in the future
really thanks Null okay that's all the
background let's go over what we know
the the facts of the crash on June 12th
2025 Air India flight AI 171 a Boeing
took off from Sardar Valabia Patel
International Airport in Ahmedabad at
138 p.m bound for London Gatwick
carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew with
169 Indians 53 British seven Portuguese
one Canadian it reached 625 ft with 425
ft above the airport's elevation the
captain had 8,200 hours flying the first
in the US generally you have to have
1500 hours minimum to get your ATP
certificate to be hired by the airlines
there are exceptions down to a thousand
hours if you go to a 4-year aviation
university but then it's called a
restricted ATP and I'm not going to get
into all that outside the US that
minimum requirement for the FO the first
officer is often not required and the US
developed that requirement really only
recently after the Kan air crash of 2009
before that you could be sitting in the
right seat with as little as 250 hours
for India and the directorate general of
to be first officer it can be as little
as 2002 250 hours for captains the
requirement is the airline transport
pilot license the ATPL with the minimum
1500 hours okay more facts that we know
in the moments after takeoff the RAT the
ram air turbine deployed according to
video the RAT will deploy automatically
under some specific circumstances like
both engines uh spooled back or
hydraulic failure electrical failure and
some others or it can be manually
deployed by the pilots also no smoke
came out of either engine so at 1:39 p.m
36 seconds after takeoff Captain Sumit
Cyberwal issued a Mayday Mayday call and
his exact words were "Mayday mayday
mayday no power no thrust going down."
Nine words no response followed the jet
crashed into a doctor's accommodation
building at BJ Medical College and Civil
Hospital 1.24 24 miles from the runway
killing 241 on board and at least 33 on
the ground and the total is nearing 300
the fireball left the tail in in a
building and the landing gear un
retracted and we'll talk about that
miracle survivor in a moment
by June 13th the next day 300
firefighters and sniffer dogs recovered
the flight data recorder the FDR from a
hostile rooftop 1,000 ft from the main
wreckage the black boxes are usually
located in the rear of the airplane
which was intact and sticking out of
that building the cockpit voice recorder
the CVR was found on June 16th
completing the blackbox recovery the FDR
logs thousands of parameters including
FADC systems while the CVR captures
pilot communications the aircraft
accident investigation bureau or AIB
which is India's official organization
responsible for investigating like the
US NTSB is working with the US NTSB the
AIB UK Boeing and GE Aerospace and the
AIB leads the probe expecting to take
months one note about the crash scene i
am amazed by the lack of securing that
was done footage of the location shows
firet trucks driving over a wing people
everywhere if this was while fire and
rescue was happening I get it but this
lack of security will make the
investigation a little harder i tried to
find that footage of the truck driving
over the wing but here's a an image from
that video following the crash several
unverified reports about widespread
electrical failures on previous flights
of the same airliner surfaced on social
media but they have not been verified
the DGCA India's FAA equivalent ordered
inspections of all Indian 787s focusing
on GENX engines fuel systems and FedEx
prompted by a suspected dual engine
power loss air India inspected nine of
the 34787s by June 14th with one-time
checks mandated a committee led by Home
Secretary Goven Mohan met on June 16th
targeting a report in three months
boeing's CEO Kelly Ortberg who left the
Paris Air Show sent experts and the Tata
chairman called for safety reforms
preliminary theories include that FedEx
failure which I'm going to get to flap
misconfiguration or pilot error with
flight radar 24 showing a 12 second
climb a level off and then descent
social media is on fire with all sorts
of speculative causes from fuel
contamination to dual engine failure to
bird strikes to full electrical failure
the first people pointed to bad CCTV
footage that flaps were incorrect which
is inconclusive and most likely
inaccurate speculation then everyone
pointed to the deployment of the RAM air
turbine the RAT which happens in a loss
of electrical power but what
investigators are looking deeply into
right now is the FedEx system and so far
not much has been discussed about this
okay for non-pilots the full authority
digital engine control FADC is a dual
channel computer controlling each GX
engine's fuel thrust and ignition and
optimizing efficiency through its
software powered by engine generators
the APU or batteries it uses sensors for
air speed and temperature on the ground
with weight on the wheels wow is what
they call that cuz everybody loves a
good acronym fededc runs in ground mode
at takeoff a WOW switch shifts it to
flight mode for the climb a faulty
transition could disrupt thrust
potentially spooling the engines back to
idle thrust after the WOW shift but dual
fedc failures are rare due to built-in
redundancies investigators are probing
if a fedc issue during wow shift caused
the power loss with FDR data being
critical to this they'll be looking at
electrical corrosion or other possible
interferences with the electrical system
feeding the fadec computer the AIB
analyzes FDR CVR and video data and FDR
could reveal FedEx issues soon while CVR
may capture pilot reactions this data
will most likely provide the reason the
plane crashed vishwash Kumar Ramish a
40-year-old British national in seat 11A
survived thrown clear from the emergency
exit near the left wing after the plane
crashed in the hospital he recalled a
loud bang suggesting engine or
structural failure but Prime Minister
Naharendra Modi visited Romesh on June
13th who though walked away still had
burns and required medical attention and
a stay in the hospital this footage
right here reportedly shows Romesh
emerging from the crash and it's
the crash killed five medical students
in the hostile dining hall as well as 28
others on the ground as of this report
unfortunately the death toll has been
rising by the time you watch this it's
sadly probably going to climb the crash
site is 1.24 miles from the runway civil
Hospital identified 119 victims via DNA
so far releasing 76 bodies by June 16th
post crash disruptions have surged on
June 14th 2025 Iran's airspace closure
due to the Israel Iran conflict diverted
AI30 London Mumbai to Vienna and AI 102
New York to Delhi to Sharah on June 16th
AI 315th a Delhi bound 787-8
from Hong Kong returned 90 minutes after
takeoff at 22,000 ft due to a technical
issue but landed safely that day AI 180
faced a technical snag in Kolkata at
12:45 a.m forcing passengers to
disembark and on June 17th AI 143 Delhi
to Paris and AI 142 were cancelled after
pre-flight checks ai 159 Amedad to
Gatwick was cancelled on June 17th due
to unavailability of aircraft from
airspace restrictions and extra checks
on X posts they report delays of 787s
trip 7s including a San Francisco
Kolkata Mumbai flight grounded in
Kolkata affecting Delhi Zurich and
Amedad Gatwick roots air India's 2024
ontime performance fell to 60.14%
in 2022 reflecting maintenance and
scheduling woes the DGCA's postc crash
787 inspections completed on nine of Air
India's 34 Dream Liners by June 14th has
added strain and potentially worsening
for the victims UK high commissioner
Lindy Cameron opened a consular center
and Air India offered 2.5 million rupees
US per victim's family plus 10 million
from Tatada dr pk Mishra emphasized they
needed transparency a metad holds vigils
and the 787's first crash shakes
aviation answers hinge on the black
boxes we honor the almost 300 lost and
we seek the truth finally investigators
will be looking at the miracle of seat
11A is there anything that can be done
in the future that might increase the
chances of passenger survival when I've
been around family and friends this past
Father's Day weekend that was the
question on everyone's mind how did
someone walk away from that and I tell
them the truth i don't know
all right thanks for watching and when
the initial or preliminary report comes
out from India we'll bring you the
information and I want to thank our
sponsors like clemens insurance.net for
saving me a lot of money when I switch
to them as my brokers also Zvision
xvision.com the brightest landing and
taxi lights i I have some on my Cessna
210 and it's amazing i just flew the
other night and illumination is so much
more than anything I have ever seen and
if you really like aviation we have a
sister channel that deep dives into all
things flying and we call it in the
hanger and you can click it right there
and watch and subscribe finally check
out this recent report we did by
clicking this box thanks again and
remember superior judgment trumps
superior skills stay safe out there
|
