It’s been a chilling day. The preliminary report into the June 12 crash of Air India Flight AI‑171 —a Boeing 787 Dreamliner that plunged shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad—opens a window into a tragedy both technical and emotional. Seconds after lift-off, at around 08:08:42 UTC , the engines were screaming at 180 knots —right when both fuel-control switches flipped from RUN to CUTOFF , one after the other, barely a second apart. Instantly, both engines began losing thrust. The cockpit voice recorder captured one pilot shaking, “ Why did you cut off fuel? ” — a response came, “ I didn’t. ” There was panic. The crew tried to switch fuel back to RUN, and the plane’s automatic systems tried to relight the engines. Engine 1 partially recovered , but Engine 2 could not arrest its descent despite repeated attempts. A MAYDAY call echoed over the radio around 08:09:05, and just six seconds later , data stopped. The plane crashed less than a mile from the runway, into a medical col...
It’s been a chilling day. The preliminary report into the June 12 crash of Air India Flight AI‑171 —a Boeing 787 Dreamliner that plunged shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad—opens a window into a tragedy both technical and emotional. Seconds after lift-off, at around 08:08:42 UTC , the engines were screaming at 180 knots —right when both fuel-control switches flipped from RUN to CUTOFF , one after the other, barely a second apart. Instantly, both engines began losing thrust. The cockpit voice recorder captured one pilot shaking, “ Why did you cut off fuel? ” — a response came, “ I didn’t. ” There was panic. The crew tried to switch fuel back to RUN, and the plane’s automatic systems tried to relight the engines. Engine 1 partially recovered , but Engine 2 could not arrest its descent despite repeated attempts. A MAYDAY call echoed over the radio around 08:09:05, and just six seconds later , data stopped. The plane crashed less than a mile from the runway, into a medical col...