The Dreamliner That Didn’t Climb

ON JUNE 12, 2025, just minutes after take-off from Ahmedabad, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner fell from the sky. Flight AI171, bound for London Gatwick, disappeared from radar less than nine minutes after leaving the runway. This was not just another accident. Since entering service in 2011, no Dreamliner had ever been lost—until now.

The Dreamliner was built for invulnerability: carbon fibre fuse­lage, advanced fly by wire systems, predictive engines and dual redun­dancies. It should have been safe. Yet now, it lies broken. What went wrong during those first nine min­utes? Investigators will soon turn to the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for hints: a warning that didn’t sound, a system that didn’t engage, a hesitation, a silence.

In the history of crashes soon after take-off, the answers tend to flicker between man and machine. On October 29, 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 plunged into the Java Sea just 12 minutes after departing Jakarta—an automated system forced the nose down repeatedly due to a faulty sensor. On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 met a similar fate six minutes after take-off. Both tragedies re­vealed the risks of software-driven overcorrection.

On January 9, 2021, Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 stalled four minutes into its flight after a faulty autothrottle led to asymmetrical thrust. Cubana Flight 972, on May 18, 2018, crashed due to improper aircraft loading and a delayed response. In 2003, Air Algérie Flight 6289 suf­fered an engine failure but crashed because of incorrect pilot response.

In India, Air India Express Flight 812 (2010) and IX1344 (2020) showed how decision-making in marginal moments defines survival.

Take-off may appear routine to passengers, but for the flight crew it is a meticulously choreographed sequence in which every second counts. As the aircraft accelerates down the runway, the co-pilot calls out “eighty knots” to verify that instruments and rudder control are functioning correctly. At V₁, the decision speed, the crew must commit to take-off—beyond this point, there isn’t enough runway left to abort. At V^R, or rotation speed, the pilot gently lifts the nose. Once airborne, the aircraft climbs steeply; by 400 feet, it begins to follow the programmed departure path. This entire stretch—often less than a minute—is the most unforgiving phase of flight.

That appears to be where things went wrong. Early reports suggest the Dream­liner lifted off normally before witnesses observed flames and smoke from both engines. At full fuel weight for a long-haul flight, the aircraft reached an alti­tude of only 625 feet before losing thrust and descend­ing rapidly. Aviation experts suspect a rare dual-engine failure, possibly due to bird strikes, fuel contamina­tion, or a fault in the engine control system. At that low altitude and airspeed, with virtually no margin for error, even a flawless response from the crew may not have been enough.

Although this is the Dreamliner’s first crash, it has drawn scrutiny before. Lithium-ion battery fires grounded it in 2013. In 2024, inspection lapses at Boeing’s South Carolina plant raised concerns about manufacturing integrity. The crash is more than a tragedy—it marks the limits of engineering confidence.

Ahmedabad-LondonAI171Air Indiadeathsplane crash