The aviation world was shaken to its core on June 12th when Air India Flight 171, a state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliner, fell from the sky shortly after departing Ahmedabad for London. With 279 confirmed fatalities—including 38 people on the ground—it stands as one of the deadliest disasters in recent history. Amidst the chaos of rumors about rats in the cockpit and catastrophic engine failures, aviation expert Hoover provides a “Pilot Debrief” to separate speculation from the chilling facts.
The Mystery of the Takeoff Roll
Early reports and ADSB (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) data led many to believe the pilots made a fatal error by using only half the runway. However, a deeper look at the data revealed the truth: the crew had back-taxied to use the full 3,500-meter length.
While they had the space, something went wrong during the rotation. Security footage suggests the aircraft rotated about 2,500 meters down the runway—roughly 70% of its length. To the casual observer, the takeoff looked normal, but for the pilots inside, the nightmare was likely already beginning.
A Heroic Crew and a Miraculous Survivor
The cockpit was manned by a deeply respected veteran Captain with over 10,000 flight hours—a man who was just days away from retirement. Beside him was a First Officer with 3,400 hours of experience. Despite their skill, they were faced with a scenario that defied their training.
As the plane struggled to gain altitude, it began a slow, terrifying descent over the city. Amidst the wreckage, only one passenger miraculously survived. In their final moments, eyewitnesses reported seeing the Captain bank the wings sharply, a desperate and heroic maneuver intended to avoid crashing directly into a row of apartment buildings, likely saving hundreds of lives on the ground.
The RAT and the “Point of No Return”
Central to the investigation is the deployment of the RAT (Ram Air Turbine)—an emergency windmill that drops from the fuselage to provide backup power. Usually, the RAT only deploys during a total electrical failure or a dual engine failure.
Experts are analyzing several theories:
V1 Scenarios: V1 is the “point of no return.” If an engine fails before V1, you stop. If it fails after V1, you must take off.
The EEC Glitch: Some wonder if the Electronic Engine Control software failed to transition to “flight mode,” inadvertently commanding the engines to idle thrust just as the wheels left the ground.
The “Swiss Cheese” Theory: The most haunting possibility is a simple human error born of high-stress. If one engine failed after V1, a distracted pilot might have accidentally shut down the good engine while trying to secure the bad one.
The Verdict of the Data
While a passenger’s video from a previous flight showed broken touchscreens and air conditioning, investigators warn against confirmation bias. A broken reading light does not cause a dual engine failure.
The true answers lie within the Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder, currently under analysis in the United States. Until then, the aviation community remains in mourning, waiting to understand how the “holes in the Swiss cheese” lined up to bring down one of the world’s most advanced flying machines.
