The Ahmedabad Air India flight AI171 crash has been haunting the entire nation. Within seconds of the take-off, something terribly went wrong, which made the plane descend, and eventually, it crashed in Meghani Nagar’s B.J. Medical College Hostel mess at around 2 p.m. It was a black day for the nation as it took away 241 lives on the flight out of 242 and several others. Now, YouTuber and former pilot, Gaurav Taneja shared the possible reason for the crash and how no pilot is even prepared for a dual-engine failure.
Gaurav Taneja shared his insight into the unfortunate tragedy
In an interview with Times Now, Gaurav Taneja shared detailed, technical information about what could have possibly gone wrong in the final moments after the take-off of the London-bound Beoing 787 Dreamliner, which was operating as flight AI171 on June 12, 2025. He started off by explaining that modern aircraft are designed in such a way that it alerts pilots about major issues or breakdowns before they leave the ground. He said:
“Actually, if you’re taking off, the aircraft will show you a message if there is any severe error in the flight or in the system. And it will ask you to reject the take-off until you’ve rotated the aircraft off the runway. If the aircraft has taken off, that means there was no indication or warning from the aircraft itself, so the pilots could proceed. If there’s any minor warning that does not affect the safety of the flight, since take-off is a critical phase, the aircraft systems inhibit that warning. It essentially says: ‘Okay, let the pilots take off. This is not anything major. Let them reach a safe altitude of 4,000–5,000 feet, and then I can flash this error,’ so that the pilots, if they choose to, can turn back and land safely at the departure airport.”
Gaurav Taneja further pointed out that since the plane was able to lift off, the aircraft systems were functioning properly during the initial few seconds. However, he noticed that the landing gear wasn’t retracted. Something major went wrong immediately after the take-off. Gaurav stated that pilots could have been distracted in finding to solve the problem. He added that there was no time for a positive rate of climb, and the aircraft started sinking. He said:
“But here, the gears were left down, indicating that right after take-off there was some emergency. The pilots were distracted, they were trying to solve that problem. There was no time or perhaps no confirmation of a positive rate of climb, and the aircraft was sinking, about 400 feet per minute.”
Gaurav Taneja revealed pilots are not trained in scenarios of dual-engine failure
Gaurav further revealed that these situations are extremely scary in crowded urban areas, and pilots lose control in such emergencies. He stated that they know how to land aircraft in deserts and farmland, but they have not been trained for highways and buildings. He said:
“If it were a desert or a stretch of plain farmland, I could still try to land the aircraft there. But when there are buildings and highways, what do I do? I have no training for that. I’ve been through such simulated situations. The instructor puts us through it just to show how terrifying it can be. And at the end of the scenario, the instructor finally ‘saves’ the aircraft, just to make the point, and we all exhale and say, ‘Thank God, it’s a sim.’ But what if it’s a real aircraft? It’s a pilot’s nightmare: both engines not responding.”
Our heart goes out to the victims of the Air India crash!
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