A couple of days ago, we saw the tragic crash of an Air India Dreamliner, as the plane struggled to gain altitude after takeoff. As of now, there are a lot more questions than answers. However, as authorities continue releasing more information, we have more clues as to what was going on.
The final words of Air India’s Boeing 787 captain
On June 12, 2025, we saw an Air India Boeing 787-8 with the registration code VT-ANB crash shortly after takeoff, while flying from Ahmedabad (AMD) to London Gatwick (LGW). While I’d say any kind of aircraft accident is horrifying (since it’s so rare), the concept of a plane simply not gaining altitude after takeoff is perhaps a special kind of terrible.
As of now, we don’t know what the cause of the accident was. We do have video footage of the plane’s takeoff from a couple of angles, and it shows the heavy jet struggling to gain altitude just seconds after takeoff.
At 1:39PM local time, just seconds after the plane took off, the captain made an emergency call to air traffic controllers, which are the last words that were ever transmitted from the doomed plane:
“Mayday, mayday, mayday, no thrust, losing power, unable to lift.”
For those not familiar, a “mayday” call is what pilots make when there’s an emergency that poses an immediate danger. But as a pilot, the focus is first on aviating, then on navigating, and then on communicating. So after that mayday call, there was no further contact from the pilots, because clearly their focus was on doing what they could to recover the aircraft.
One additional clue, and we can read into this however we’d like, is that the sole survivor of the crash onboard told media that he heard a loud bang after takeoff, as the plane struggled to gain altitude. However, I wouldn’t necessarily take that as fact, since everything happened very fast, and planes can make all kinds of noises that can be confusing to the average traveler.
No thrust, no power, and/or no lift? What happened?
When an experienced captain says that a plane has no thrust and is losing power, what can we really conclude from that? If one were to take that at face value, that would suggest that the plane was actually losing engine power and thrust, meaning there was some sort of issue with engines.
However, it’s too early to conclude whether there was an actual loss of thrust or power, or whether there was just a loss of lift (which could happen even with full engine power). I imagine it was a completely confusing and disorienting several seconds for pilots, since you don’t expect a heavy jet like this to just suddenly sink. So it’s also possible that the mayday call simply reflected the practical reality, which is that the plane was sinking, due to a lack of lift and thrust.
There’s a popular YouTuber named Captain Steeeve, who is a Boeing 777 captain for a major airline. He provides great analysis on everything related to aviation, and he published an interesting video yesterday about the Air India accident.
Admittedly there’s not much value in speculating on what happened, but I also think there’s nothing wrong with an experienced airline captain sharing what he observes based on the evidence we have, and describing how possible scenarios can play out. If nothing else, it’s a useful basic explanation of lift vs. power, and how that impacts aircraft in the very early stages of a flight.
Captain Steeeve comes up with three possible categories of what could cause something like this, all related to the loss of lift of this jet. He claims that two scenarios are significantly less likely than the other. To start, he points out a few observations:
- From the distance the videos were filmed, it’s impossible to tell whether the flaps were in use or not, but he states that the plane’s flying characteristics are like that of a plane not using flaps (which isn’t to say they weren’t being used)
- Typically the landing gear would be retracted moments after takeoff, but that wasn’t done here, for some reason
- While we don’t know if the engines were running correctly, we don’t see any sort of sparks or flames coming out of the engines
- A Boeing 787 can of course climb with a single engine, in the event that there’s a single engine failure
With that in mind, Captain Steeeve shares three possible scenarios, based on what he observes. We know that the plane lost lift, but obviously we don’t know if it actually lost power, and if so, to what extent. With that in mind, here are his theories of possible causes of something like this after takeoff:
- Loss of power to both engines, causing the loss of lift; this could happen due to bird strikes (which is unlikely due to lack of flames or smoke) or due to fuel contamination (which is unlikely because the pilots would’ve noticed this when they started their takeoff roll)
- Taking off without the flaps deployed; they would’ve had to get through two checklists while missing this, and the plane would’ve had several warnings indicating flaps weren’t out correctly (so this is highly unlikely)
- Immediately after takeoff, the pilot not flying raised the flaps instead of raising the gear, by accident; retracting flaps while simultaneously keeping the gear down increases drag and decreases lift, and would explain the movement of the aircraft, putting the airplane into a power on stall
I think it’s worth understanding all these scenarios, but of course it’s too early to draw any conclusions for this specific incident. It’s also worth emphasizing that many other pilots have a different take than Captain Steeeve, and point out that on the 787, the system wouldn’t let you retract the flaps at such a low altitude, when the implications would be potentially fatal.
Furthermore, many people also observe that it looks like the RAT (Ram Air Turbine) is deployed after takeoff, and that only happens in certain scenarios, including when there’s a complete loss of power (which would be different than Captain Steeeve’s theory).
Again, these are all just explanations of what could cause a plane to sink like this after takeoff, though there’s no indication that any of this is the exact cause of this accident. I’m sharing this simply because it’s the best analysis I’ve seen from someone who has experience, and it’s a good general explanation of the lift issue that this aircraft had. We should learn a lot more soon, once the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder are recovered.
Bottom line
We now know the details of the mayday call that the Air India Boeing 787-8 captain made just seconds before takeoff, and seconds before the plane ultimately crashed into the ground. The captain suggested the plane had “no thrust,” was “losing power,” and was “unable to lift.”
What exactly that actually means, well… that remains to be seen, but we should learn more soon.
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