In the final, terrifying moments before Air India Flight 171 plummeted from the sky, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal’s desperate radio transmissions to air traffic control have revealed the catastrophic mechanical failure that claimed 241 lives and shocked the aviation world. The discovery of one of the aircraft’s black boxes has provided investigators with crucial evidence that, combined with the pilot’s final words, is beginning to paint a picture of what went tragically wrong on that fateful June 12 morning.
The Final Communications: A Pilot’s Desperate Battle
According to reports from the London Evening Standard, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal’s final radio communications paint a harrowing picture of a crew fighting desperately to save their aircraft and the 242 souls aboard. The experienced pilot, flying alongside co-pilot Clive Kundar, issued a series of increasingly urgent warnings that suggest a catastrophic power failure struck the Boeing 787 Dreamliner just moments after takeoff.
“Mayday, mayday,” Sabharwal reportedly transmitted as the aircraft began losing altitude shortly after departure from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The pilot’s subsequent warnings were even more chilling: “We are losing power… no thrust… unable to lift.” These few words, transmitted from less than 650 feet in the air, represent the final communications from a crew that found themselves in an impossible situation with virtually no time to respond.
The terminology used by Captain Sabharwal – specifically “no thrust” and “unable to lift” – suggests a complete or near-complete failure of the aircraft’s propulsion system. In aviation terms, “thrust” refers to the forward force produced by the aircraft’s engines, while “unable to lift” indicates that the plane lacked sufficient power to maintain or gain altitude. For a fully loaded aircraft departing on a long-haul flight to London, such a power loss would be catastrophic.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 corroborates the pilot’s desperate transmissions. The aircraft lost contact with air traffic control just seconds into what should have been a 10-hour journey to London Gatwick Airport. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which had reached a maximum altitude of approximately 625 feet, began its fatal descent almost immediately after the crew’s mayday call.