The Air India plane that crashed last week, claiming the lives of at least 270 people, had one of its engines replaced recently, the airline’s chairman said. Flight AI171 went down less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad last Thursday, crashing into a medical college hostel.
The crash killed 241 of the 242 passengers onboard, along with several more people on the ground. Speaking to an Indian news outlet, Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran said that both of the aircraft’s engines had a “clean” operational record. Several theories have surfaced since the crash, but the actual cause is yet to be determined as investigations continue into the incident.
Chilling New Details Emerge
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“The right engine was a new engine put in March 2025. The left engine was last serviced in 2023 and due for its next maintenance check in December 2025,” Chandrasekaran said. As investigators sift through the wreckage and examine the flight data retrieved from the aircraft’s black boxes—both recovered earlier this week—Chandrasekaran urged the public to avoid jumping to conclusions about the cause of the crash.
“There are a lot of speculations and a lot of theories. But the fact that I know so far is this particular aircraft, this specific tail, AI171, has a clean history.
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“I am told by all the experts that the black box and recorders will definitely tell the story. So, we just have to wait for that.”
Meanwhile, the only person to survive the crash, 40-year-old British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, revealed he is struggling with deep survivor’s guilt following the loss of his brother Ajay, who was also on the flight.
Ramesh said that he had initially tried to book two adjacent seats on flight AI171, which crashed into a heavily populated area of Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff.
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However, by the time he finalized the booking, he had no choice but to select two separate seats located in row 11.
Ramesh said: “If we had been sat together we both might have survived. I tried to get two seats together but someone had already got one. Me and Ajay would have been sitting together.
“But I lost my brother in front of my eyes. So now I am constantly thinking ‘Why can’t I save my brother?'”
Narrow Escape
Ramesh, who was seated near one of the aircraft’s emergency exits, managed to escape by crawling through a gap in the mangled fuselage of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. His brother Ajay, seated in 11J, was killed along with 240 other passengers and crew members.
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Ramesh even tried to get back to the burning aircraft to save his brother but he was stopped by emergency workers.
Emergency worker Satinder Singh Sandhu said: “I walked nearer to Mr Ramesh, grabbed him by the arm and led him away to a waiting ambulance. I had no idea that he was a passenger on the plane and thought he was a resident of the hostel or a passerby.
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“He was very disoriented and shocked and was limping. There was also blood on his face, but he was able to speak.
“He told the paramedics that he was flying to London when the plane fell and that he wanted to go back to save his family.”
Vishwash, with bandages on his face, was seen yesterday carrying his brother’s coffin during a funeral ceremony held in Gujarat. Later, he broke down in grief and had to be escorted away.
