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Air India Crash Passenger Shared Eerie Clip Showing Total Power Failure Hours Before Tragedy
A passenger on an Air India flight posted a video purporting to show that the aircraft’s electrical components, such as the air conditioner and TV screens, were not functioning just hours before it crashed in a horrific blaze.
Video of what he called “unusual things in the plane” was posted on X by Akash Vatsa, who claimed to have been on the aircraft during its previous voyage from Dehli to Ahmedabad.
He posted images of the aircraft with the registration code VT-ANB, which seems to be the same as the one of the downed aircraft.
According to flight data, the Boeing Dreamliner arrived in Ahmedabad, a city in western India, this morning from Delhi.
Shortly after taking off, Flight 171 crashed in a terrible blaze. The flight had left for London Gatwick at 1pm local time. More casualties are anticipated on the ground, and it is thought that there are no survivors.
Following the release of the horrific disaster, Mr. Vatsa posted footage he claimed demonstrated the jet’s prior flight’s in-flight amenities malfunctioning.
“The AC is not working at all. As usual, their TV screens are also not working, neither is the button to call the cabin crew,” he says in the clip. “Nothing is working, nothing. Not even the light is working.”
He claimed that although he had recorded the video to file a complaint with Air India, he published it to draw attention to the plane’s problems following today’s crash.
Mr Vatsa told Indian news outlet NDTV that because the flight number got changed, “the passengers with a connecting flight to London had to deboard, come to the departure gate and had to board again.”
The cause of the deadliest flight accident to hit India in decades is still unknown.
The disaster might have been caused by a bird strike on both engines or a sudden shift in wind that caused the engine to stall.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that the aircraft crashed “immediately after takeoff,” at approximately 1.40 pm (8.10 am BST), after issuing a mayday call.
Before it crashed, the jet was shown on video fast descending into a residential area with its landing gear deployed and its nose angle high.
It is thought the post-crash fire was exacerbated by the aircraft’s hefty fuel load for the long-haul flight to London.
When the plane struck a residential block that houses doctors at the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital, footage shows a fireball exploding.
Rescuers told reporters at the scene that they had recovered scores of people’s remains from buildings the plane crashed into as it came down, but authorities confirmed that no one is thought to have survived the disaster.
To analyse the wreckage and recover the black box from the downed jet, officials from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau arrived on the spot.
According to flight data, the aircraft seems to have reached takeoff speed but not altitude, indicating “either a very late rotation or a stall shortly after takeoff,” according to Lt. Col. John R. Davidson, a former US Air Force pilot and commercial aviation safety expert.
“There are a number of possible scenarios: thrust or engine performance issues, excessive aircraft weight, poor trim or flap configuration, or a more critical failure that affected the aircraft’s ability to climb,” he said.
“Weather, windshear or even bird strike can’t be ruled out either at this early stage.”
According to footage that has been making the rounds, the plane’s horrifying descent “looked like a case of multiple bird hits wherein both the engines have lost power,” former senior pilot Captain Saurabh Bhatnagar told NDTV.
“The takeoff was perfect,” he said. “And just, I believe, short of taking the gear up, the aircraft started descending, which can happen only in case the engine loses power or the aircraft stops developing lift.”
Sanjay Lazar, an aviation specialist, pointed out that since the Dreamliner was only eleven years old, it was unlikely to have any underlying technical problems.
A bird strike “would explain why the aircraft did not have the power to lift,” he said. “If there were multiple bird hits on take-off, it probably could not have gone beyond the 6-7 minute threshold and started falling.”
Davidson explained that the low altitude and high speed reading at the final moment might indicate a “steep nose-down trajectory or a stall event” just after takeoff.
“This is consistent with accidents like Spanair Flight 5022 and Flydubai Flight 981, where mechanical or environmental factors combined with compromised lift performance led to loss of control during or just after liftoff,” he said.
The former pilot noted, “Flight data alone isn’t enough to determine fault — but it tells us this aircraft never truly made it airborne in a meaningful way.”
“Whatever happened, it happened fast, and right at the most critical phase of flight.”
Captain Summeet Sabharwal, an accomplished pilot with 8,200 hours of service, was in charge of the aircraft.
US planemaker Boeing said it was “working to gather more information” on the incident and that it was ready to support Air India.
According to a person familiar with the issue, this was the first crash involving a 787 Dreamliner.
The flagship of the US company’s long-distance aircraft lineup is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a lightweight, wide-body, fuel-efficient aircraft that can carry up to 330 passengers.
Following a massive 2023 contract for 470 aircraft—250 Airbus and 220 Boeing—Air India placed an additional order for 100 Airbus aircraft last year.
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