Air India Flight 171’s Odd Crash Anomalies

Like many young men I wanted to grow up to be a commercial airline pilot. Somewhere in my last year of high school I got my eyes checked and it was determined my depth perception was off too much to ever allow me to be a pilot. To this day like many good Americans, I have much respect for everyone involved in the aviation industry, from those who make our aircraft to those who fly them. They are all responsible for making it the safest form of transportation in the world.

The crash of the Air India flight AI171 took me by surprise and immediately made many of us suspicious. Some armchair experts took to blaming both the flight crew for human error as well as Boeing for their 787 Dreamliner’s mechanical error.

These experts (Internet content creators?) looking at the early video of the crash, now seen millions of times around the world, had three different ideas of what could have caused the crash:

• Performance Miscalculation – the plane was observed needing almost the entire runway for takeoff and seemed to act sluggish once in the air
• Incorrect Flap Settings – flaps are small metal tabs along the edges of the wings that regulate both lift and drag at takeoff and landing
• Bird Strike in Both Engines – reminiscent of the flight US Airways Flight 1549 with “Sully” Sullenberger who heroically landed his plane in the Hudson River of New York

The problems I immediately had with these scenarios were twofold. This flight crew had thousands of hours of flight time and no 787 Dreamliner had ever crashed before in its 14 years of existence. I immediately thought of the recent dustup India had with Pakistan in a battle that goes back generations and wondered if the plane had been sabotaged. When the flight manifest was released, not a single Pakistani was on board.

Google AI offers a good recap of the recent conflict between India and Pakistan:

“In May 2025, India and Pakistan engaged in a brief but intense armed conflict following a militant attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir. India launched strikes into Pakistan, targeting alleged militant camps, while Pakistan responded with strikes on Indian military bases. The conflict, which included border skirmishes and drone strikes, ended with a US-mediated ceasefire.”

Some 241 passengers and crew died in this incident of AI171 with one male passenger from India miraculously walking away after the crash.

“Air India Flight 171 Crash: New Video, Clues Experts Ignored” – jeffostrof

• Should the plane have been grounded due to observed electrical issues before the plane took off (no Air Conditioning and Infotainment screens not working in seatbacks)?
• Did the high 105-degree Fahrenheit temperature on the day of the crash contribute to Density Altitude issues?
• Could the two jet engines have vapor locked right after liftoff (unlikely)?
• Did the plane get a bad load of fuel (unlikely)?
• Was the plane tampered with before the flight?

So a second cellphone video captured by a young man in the airport recently showed the plane’s ram air turbine (RAT) had deployed from the belly of the plane. A company that is considered a leading expert in the development and manufacture of these RATs is actually less than 15 miles from my home and some of my past college graduates work there. We regularly toured this company on fieldtrips so I know a little bit more about this device than most.

The observance of the RAT means both engines lost power for it to be deployed.

Sundstrand (then Hamilton Sundstrand and now part of Collins Aerospace) in Rockford, Illinois, is well-known for its development of ram air turbines (RATs). They didn’t invent the device, RATs were developed earlier by General Motors in 1959, Collins Aerospace remains a major manufacturer and innovator in RAT technology for aircraft emergency power systems.

In the old days, when a commercial airliner lost power, it crashed. In later years, planes equipped with RATs had them deploy from the bottom of the aircraft when engines failed. The small turbine (between 2 and 5 feet in diameter) would spin with remaining forward airspeed and generate enough electricity to operate the cockpit systems of the flight deck allowing them hydraulic control for navigation.

My students and I got to walkthrough an actual mockup of the entire electrical system of the Boeing Dreamliner as it was being developed at Collins Aerospace in Rockford for Boeing.

In this video, we clearly see the ram air turbine (RAT) deployed.

“Why the RAT Changes Everything – Air India 171 Update” – Captain Steeeve

CONCLUSION:

Both the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Boeing have sent representatives to investigate this crash. Both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were retrieved from the crash wreckage in relatively good condition so information should be provided to help determine what happened.

Both the 777 and 787 Dreamliner planes will sound loud warnings to flight crews if the controls are not configured properly or if they are loaded too heavy. So that should absolve both the flight crew and Boeing from any wrong doing in this crash.

From what we know:

• The takeoff of the plane seemed to take longer and was slower than normal.
• Both engines simultaneously died (no birds in the area) and the RAT deployed.
• The pilot’s last words “Thrust not achieved. Falling. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!”
• The plane lost altitude and crashed.

This particular 787 was said to be in service for 12 years and was about due for being taken out of service for a major service inspection and routine maintenance.

I have had acquaintances work for Boeing and the Dreamliners are stellar aircraft admired by aviation experts worldwide. I have had my college CAD graduates working at Collins Aerospace where, as the old expression goes, “Their RATs can save your ass!”

Some people have wondered why the pilot did not immediately turn around and come back to the airport. My guess would be he was in a state of shock having a hard time believing his trusty Dreamliner was suddenly failing him as well as his the lack of altitude with such a big plane may have meant he knew he was screwed no matter what he tried to do.

Takeoffs and landings are the most dangerous part of flying and this is a known fact. Kind of like when I was in college to become a driver’s education instructor and we learned 40% of all traffic accidents happen at intersections (again, the concept of takeoffs and landings). 

Some 241 souls aboard Air India flight AI171 took off from Ahmedabad (AMD) India to London Gatwick (LGW) England and never made their destination. Their plane was in the air less than 2 minutes and only gained an altitude of 600 feet for reasons unknown.

God rest their souls.

© 2025 by Mark S. Schwendau