AI 171 Crash: 'How Can You Condemn Dreamliner For One Accident?'

'Look at the number of flights the aircraft has done. Look at the number of airlines which are using it.'

IMAGE: Fire fighters at the crash site, June 12, 2025. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters

The shocking and gruesome crash of the Air India Dreamliner flight to London from Ahmedabad resulted in the death of more than 270 lives.

"From 2010, the Dreamliner has been flying. In the last 15 years, this is the first fatal accident of the Dreamliner," Captain A Mohan Ranganathan, a former airline instructor pilot and aviation safety advisor, tells Rediff's Shobha Warrier.

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What could have happened?

We never know. Only the CDR (cockpit voice recorder) and FDR (flight data recorder) will show who was the handling pilot.

I feel in that moment, they might have forgotten the gear. Throughout the CCTV footage, landing gear was extended. It means they forgot to retract the landing gear.

With the landing gear hanging down, and with one engine running, it is difficult to gain height. And its nose also goes up very high.

I suspect that it stalled the aircraft, and it is very obvious from the way it crashed into the building with the tail intact. It is an indication that the aircraft had stalled.

So, my impression was that the error of not taking the gear up also contributed to the crash.

But I didn't anticipate that the second engine had also stopped running.

I realised it only after I saw the image where the Ran Air Turbine was highlighted.

Why was the Ran Air Turbine (RAT) deployed? Because both the engines failed?

Ran Air Turbine gets automatically deployed if there is a power loss due to hydraulic failure, or due to electrical failure.

If you look carefully at the CCTV footage, it slows down second by second and as the nose lifts off, you will see lots of dust being kicked up. That's why I suspected damage due to a foreign object.

So, with the engine failure combined with gear hanging down, and the second engine also failing, it is impossible to climb up.

If he had taken the gear up, he would have gained a lot more height and maybe had a chance of clearing the obstacles.

Do you think there is any problem with the Boeing Dreamliner aircraft?

Okay, there is a whistle-blower's video going around.

From 2010, the Dreamliner has been flying. In the last 15 years, this is the first fatal accident of the Dreamliner.

Look at the number of flights the aircraft has done. Look at the number of airlines which are using it. So, how can you condemn a type of aircraft for one accident?

NEXT: 'In All Investigations They Will Blame The Pilot'