The images playing on screens around the world shifted through Thursday as a heart-rending tragedy played out in India. In the afternoon, we saw shocking videos of the ill-fated Air India flight, its nose still up, gliding down soon after take-off and disappearing into a massive, orange fireball.
By the evening, the images of the plane’s charred remains in the dining block of a medical college hostel came up. A large tail jutting out of a broken wall was a crude reminder of what was once a Boeing Dreamliner. Air India’s flight 171 to Gatwick took off from Ahmedabad at 1:38 pm, but seems to have lost power within seconds. It crashed before the pilots could make emergency manoeuvres. All barring one of the 242 passengers and crew members are feared dead; several medical students, too, have lost their lives.
Aviation experts are struggling to understand what happened. While we await a thorough investigation, it’s sobering to remember that most aviation accidents occur either during take-off or landing, when the plane is most vulnerable to human error or mechanical malfunction. In this case, what we know is that it was a full flight heavily laden with fuel for a 9-hour haul. The commander was an experienced pilot with over 8,000 hours in the air.
This is India’s worst air disaster involving a single aircraft and the first ever full loss of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner anywhere in the world. The aviation giant came under a cloud when multiple whistleblower allegations of improper manufacturing practices led to a US Federal Aviation Administration audit in 2023. Though the company claimed it corrected its errors, a mind-numbing tragedy like this raises serious questions. How do we make air travel safer?
The harsh reality is that there is no ‘zero-accident’ scenario; there are just too many factors that can go wrong. The reassuring fact is that accident rates have consistently declined even as the number of flights has increased—while a decade ago, there was one accident recorded every 456,000 flights, today it’s one for every 810,000. But that is of little comfort to the families of the bereaved.
It’s time to remember that adequate training and rest levels for pilots and crew members are crucial to reduce human error. The danger of bird hits is a serious one in India as waste littered around airports attracts carrions. While we search for answers in the rubble, let’s redouble our resolve to improve the things we can.