‘Mayday, mayday, mayday…’: the distress call sent to Ahmedabad Airport tower by Air India pilot.
Air India flight AI171, which had been heading to Gatwick with 242 people on board, crashed 30 seconds after take-off.
The aircraft, a Boeing 787-8 (registration VT-ANB), had just taken off when it failed to gain altitude and eventually crashed, becoming the first fatal accident involving this aircraft model.
The exact cause remains unknown and will be the subject of a detailed investigation. However, early clues—particularly the mayday call—have directed attention to a possible loss of engine power.
In a briefing by India’s aviation authorities on Saturday, authorities confirmed that Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who was piloting the flight, sent a distress call to air traffic control less a minute after it took off from Ahmedabad airport at 1:39pm on Thursday.
Sources said the last message from the captain to the ATC was five seconds short. The message was: ‘Mayday… mayday… mayday… no power… no thrust… unable to lift‘.
When air traffic control responded to the pilot’s emergency mayday call, “there was no response”, said Samir Kumar Sinha, a secretary for India’s aviation ministry. He said the plane went down seconds later.
