The aviation community is mourning after Thursday’s catastrophic crash of Air India Flight 171, which killed 265 people moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad. The pilot’s final radio transmission offers heartbreaking insight into the crew’s losing battle to save the aircraft.
“Mayday… no thrust, losing power, unable to lift,” Captain Sumeet Sabharwal reported before the Boeing 787 plunged into a residential area. The London-bound flight, carrying 242 passengers and crew from multiple nations, had barely cleared 625 feet when it began its fatal descent.
Authorities continue recovery operations at the crash site, where the plane struck a medical college dormitory. The sole survivor, British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, remains in intensive care as investigators work to determine what caused the state-of-the-art aircraft to fail so suddenly.
Air India has established emergency support centers for grieving families while pledging full cooperation with crash investigators. The tragedy marks one of India’s worst aviation disasters in recent memory, raising urgent questions about aircraft maintenance and safety protocols.
