Indian aircraft crashes into building just after takeoff
JL June 17th, 2025
This week, a commercial airplane with 242 people on board departed from Ahmedabad Airport to London Gatwick Airport crashed just less than 2 minutes after takeoff.
How did this happen? Did anyone survive? Where did it crash? How likely is a plane crash?
Air India Flight 171, scheduled to fly from India to London on June 12th, crashed into an nearby Medical college student quarters. A video of the crash was recorded; although blurry, it was evident that the plane crashed into a building, instantly, black smoke and fire bursted out. There was only one survivor, a British citizen sitting in seat 11A, right next to the emergency exit.
The reason of the crash is still unknown, and researchers are still investigating. According to CBS News, “The AAIB has launched a detailed investigation, and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting a parallel probe under international protocols since the aircraft is American-made,” said Prime Minister Modi’s office on Sunday. One of the reasons might be that an wing panel malfunction occurred. As stated in The Guardian, “According to some analysts’* interpretation, the video footage shows the plane’s wing flaps were not extended during takeoff”. Wing flaps are essential for lift during takeoff and landing of a plane. From the original video of the plane crashing, we hear the RAT of the plane, this small two bladed prop generates energy from the air flow to make electricity in emergencies. As explained by Captain Steeeve , an experienced pilot, “there’s three things that will deploy the RAT, and it deploys automatically.A massive electrical failure, massive hydraulic failure, (or) a dual engine failure.”So it might be also be an engine failure.
As the Infographics show, the odds of being killed on a single airline is 1 in 29.4 million, and the lifetime odds of dying from an air travel accident are 1 in 20,000.
These pieces of evidence alone isn’t enough. Did they experience a bird strike? How much fuel was prepared? These questions still remain unanswered.
*Possibly Aviation Safety Analysts
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