Fresh evidence emerging from the tragic crash of Air India flight AI-171 indicates that the aircraft may have experienced a dual-engine failure or a complete electrical or hydraulic malfunction just seconds after takeoff.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed near Ahmedabad airport on June 12, killing at least 270 people in one of India’s deadliest aviation disasters.
According to clearer audio and video recordings now available, investigators have identified the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), a small emergency device that activates automatically during a loss of engine power or total systems failure. The footage shows the plane struggling to gain altitude before descending sharply, and the RAT’s distinct high-pitched sound is audible—standing out in the absence of typical engine noise.
The RAT functions by harnessing wind to produce emergency power, and its activation suggests one of three critical scenarios: both engines shutting down, an electrical systems failure, or hydraulic system collapse.
Captain Ehsan Khalid, a former Indian Air Force pilot and aviation expert, had suspected a dual-engine failure from the outset. “Dual engine failure was almost everybody's guess. The lone survivor of the crash had also said he heard a sound, which could be the deployment of the RAT; the racing of an engine, which could have been the propeller turning and picking up speed; and he saw red and blue lights, which could have been the emergency power connecting and the emergency lights turning on,” he explained.
Khalid emphasised that the aircraft’s inability to maintain altitude pointed clearly to a total power loss. “The aircraft was actively flying and it was not able to maintain its height. It was a dual loss of power, which would obviously lead to lower speed and a loss of lift,” he noted.
He further added that a synchronised engine shutdown hints at a digital failure rather than a mechanical one. “The engines shut down at precisely the same time. If there had been even a two-second difference, there would have been a predominant yaw to the left or the right... which could have only happened due to a malfunction in the software, executed by a wrong signal from the sensors, possibly from an electrical failure,” he said.
Supporting this theory, airspace expert Dr. Aditya Paranjape observed that the aircraft showed no signs of attempting the standard "one engine out" climb. “Airplanes are configured to climb out with just one engine operational... that manoeuvre requires rudder deflection to balance yawing movement, which we don't see here,” he said. “The loss of power is identical on both sides of the airplane.”
The crash occurred just 32 seconds after the aircraft took off from Ahmedabad airport at 1:38 PM. It crashed into the BJ Medical College complex, located less than two kilometers from the runway.
The ill-fated flight was en route to London and had 242 people on board, including 10 crew members and two pilots. Only one person, 40-year-old British-Indian Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, survived. Tragically, at least 30 individuals on the ground, including medical trainees, also lost their lives.
Initial speculation centered around a possible bird strike, but that theory has since been discounted. Investigators found no bird remains on the runway, and video evidence showed no signs of fire, smoke, or debris near the engines.