'Right Engine Changed, Left Inspected': Air India On Dreamliner Plane Crash

New Delhi:
The right engine of the Air India plane that crashed 36 seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Airport - killing 274 people - was overhauled in March 2025 and the left was inspected in April, Campbell Wilson, the airline's Managing Director, said Thursday.
The London Gatwick-bound plane was 'well-maintained, with its last major inspection in June 2023 and another scheduled for December 2025', Wilson said in an open letter to customers.
The aircraft and engines showed no issues before the flight, and the pilots - Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder - had 13,400 hours of flying experience, he said.
Reassurances from the airline's boss follow questions about the safety of the Air India's 128-strong fleet, of which 33 (32 after the June 12 crash) are Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
The prevailing theory is a double engine failure or a total electronic or hydraulic malfunction, which is supported by aural and visual evidence of the RAT, or Ram Air Turbine, deploying before the crash.
Deployment of the RAT suggests double engine failure, experts told NDTV.
Experts speaking to British broadcaster BBC, however, said the condition of a plane's engine is not necessarily linked to its age, particularly in the case of the Genx-1B engines on the 787-8.
These engines, ex- aviation investigator Kishore Chinta said, do not have a maintenance schedule because of a software called Full Authority Digital Engine Control thats monitors and flags issues.
However, there are still parts that must be replaced regularly due to wear-and-tear, he said.
Wilson told customers "thorough safety inspections" had been ordered on Air India's Dreamliner fleet and that checks had been completed for 26, which are now cleared to fly.
As a precaution though, "enhanced pre-flight safety checks" on all Boeing 787 planes will continue for the time being, leading to a 15 per cent reduction in its use of widebody planes.
This is expected to continue till mid-July.
Wilson said the time to perform these checks, and factors such as airspace closure over parts of West Asia, "led to a higher-than-usual number of cancellations on our long-haul network".
According to aviation regulator DGCA, Air India has cancelled 66 Dreamliner flights since the crash, with the highest number (22) the day after the disaster.
Air India Ahmedabad-London Plane Crash
The plane was carrying a full load of fuel and 272 people, including the pilots and 10 crew members. All but one - a British-Indian man with the most incredible luck - were killed.
At least 33 people on the ground also died after the plane, which struggled to gain altitude after take-off, crashed into a residential area less than 2km from the airport.
A widely-shared video of the crash, shot on a mobile phone by a teen boy from the roof of his home, showed the plane, its jet engines, shrieking shrilly but in vain, falling into the Meghani Nagar area.
The tail section of the AI 171 seen sticking out of the hostel for college students.
A hostel for medical students took the brunt of the impact; horrific visuals from the crash site showed the plane's tail sticking out of the building.
Former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was one of the passengers.
The 'Black Boxes'
The flight data and voice recorders, together called the 'black box', have been found and the information within could potentially explain the reason for the crash. However, the device suffered some damage in the crash and will require an extraction process to access the data.
READ | Air India 'Black Box' Damaged, Centre To Decide On Sending It Abroad
It is unclear if this extraction will be done in India or abroad. In the event the 'black boxes' are sent to the US, Indian officials will accompany it to ensure protocols are followed.
What Happened To Flight AI-171
The plane took off June 12 at 1.39 pm, the Civil Aviation Ministry spokesperson said last week, and within seconds, radioed Ahmedabad ATC about a lack of thrust and then went radio silent.
"Mayday! Mayday! Thrust not achieved..." were Captain Sabharwal's final words.
Ahmedabad ATC immediately tried to contact the flight but there was no response. Seconds later the plane crashed into buildings in the Meghani Nagar neighbourhood, including the college hostel.

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