Inside the Fatal Air India AI 171 Crash: Engines Cut Off Seconds After Takeoff
Confusion in cockpit, suspected software flaw, and global probe into India’s worst aviation tragedy in decades

Ahmedabad, July 12: Nobody here calls it “Flight AI 171” anymore. It’s just the crash. Everyone in the hostel behind Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport knows exactly what time the sky cracked open that Thursday afternoon — 13:39 IST, to be precise. But time has moved differently since then. For many, it hasn’t moved at all.
That Air India Dreamliner, packed with 230 passengers and 12 crew, was just two minutes into the air when something inexplicable happened: both engines shut down. Not sputtered, not slowed — shut down. The massive jet dropped like a dying bird into a hostel full of students preparing for medical exams. A plane fell on them. Literally.
“Why Did You Cut It Off?” – Words That Still Echo
The latest report from the UK’s AAIB, released yesterday, confirms what many had feared but couldn’t quite believe: both engine fuel switches were moved to “CUTOFF” just seconds after takeoff. No warning, no technical alert, no birdstrike. Someone turned the engines off. Or something did.
What makes it worse is what the cockpit voice recorder captured: panic. One pilot says, “Why did you cut it off?” The other replies, “I didn’t.” You don’t need to be an expert to feel the fear behind those words. It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t understood. Something went terribly wrong, and the people in that cockpit were as confused as the rest of us.
260 Dead, One Alive
The numbers are cold: 260 dead, including 19 hostel residents. Only one person survived — a British passenger in seat 11A, still in ICU somewhere in Gujarat. For the families, it doesn’t matter whether it was a software fault, a human error, or a mechanical freak accident. What matters is that those 29 seconds after takeoff ended in a fireball they now replay in their heads every night.
Down in Hansol and Sardarnagar, residents say they still can’t sleep. Many are afraid of the skies above. One mother whose son was in the hostel said she now flinches at the sound of planes. “I used to feel proud when I heard them… now I feel dread.”
Software Glitch? Or Something Worse?
The AAIB report doesn’t give answers. It gives questions. Was the fuel cutoff switch accidentally flipped? Could it be a software bug in Boeing’s Thrust Control Management Architecture (TCMA)? Or was there a deeper design issue — something that made it possible for two switches to be triggered just seconds apart, without an override?
According to The Washington Post, neither pilot meant to do it. And as per The Financial Times, the engines were fine. No maintenance issues, no prior warnings. Even the FAA had issued a non-binding alert in 2018, flagging this exact risk. But Air India never followed up.
People here don’t understand what that means technically — but they understand what it feels like: “They knew. And they didn’t act.”
Ground Realities: Panic, Rage, and Silence
In the crash’s aftermath, authorities sealed the site. The hostel building is still standing, barely. Charred walls, mangled rebar, bedsheets flapping through blown-out windows. Students from the medical college nearby still walk past it every day. “We were lucky we were on leave that day,” says Rohit Patel, a final-year MBBS student. “Otherwise it could’ve been us.”
Locals rushed in with buckets, bedsheets, and bare hands before the fire brigade even arrived. “We heard screaming, then silence,” says Shabnam Ben, who lives across the street. “When we got there, there was nothing to save.”
And yet, no local official has visited the families since the third day. One protestor outside the collector’s office said, “Media cameras came. Then they left. Now we are left.”
Air India’s Response: Symbolism and Suspension
Air India quietly retired the flight numbers AI 171 and AI 172. Symbolism, they said. It’s true — nobody would want to fly on that number again. But symbolism is cold comfort.
The airline has suspended some long-haul routes, citing internal reviews. They’ve offered compensation and counselling for affected families. But the real damage — the one etched into the walls of that hostel and the minds of its residents — cannot be patched with money.
What Happens Now?
The black boxes were recovered within two weeks. International teams — from the UK, the US, and India — are poring over everything: cockpit behavior, switch design, software glitches, and Boeing’s own internal documentation. But the final report could take more than a year.
Till then, everything is speculation. People here aren’t waiting for another PDF report. They want someone to admit what went wrong — and why it was allowed to happen.
“Planes aren’t supposed to fall from the sky after takeoff,” said one survivor’s uncle. “Not unless someone, somewhere, messed up.”
And until someone says that out loud, this story won’t be over.
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Ravi Juneja is a student journalist currently pursuing his degree from Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication. With a passion for factual reporting and public interest stories, he covers a wide spectrum of news at Hindustan Herald, including politics, health, technology, entertainment, and global affairs. Ravi is committed to delivering balanced, research-backed journalism with a strong sense of responsibility and independence.