1/12 🚨Air India crash ✈️🔥On the crash anniversary, marking the loss of 260 lives, AAIB interim report's delayed as AAIB's trapped in a web of its own making. It created a relight story based on blackbox data, that's now getting dismantled by engine maker GE's own manuals. @GE_Aerospace @DGCAIndia 🧵So let's look at 12 stories, published over 12 months since last June 12, 2026 - as to the truth of what happened on AI 171 In my piece for @frontline_india, I go into how AAIB implied a simple story & @WSJ ran with it The story: 08:08:42 UTC - Capt Sumeet “cuts off” fuel 08:08:47 UTC - Both engines N2 fall minimum idle 08:08:52 ETC: First officer Clive moves fuel switch 1 for left engine from CUTOFF to RUN Engine 1 relight - Engine 1’s core “stops decelerating, reverses and starts to recover” 08:08:56 UTC: FO Clive moves fuel switch 2 for right engine from CUTOFF to RUN Engine 2 relight begins But here's the problem. Once a GEnx core goes below self‑sustaining speed, it cannot restart without power from the APU or live engine. And AI171 didn't have starter core-spin power. AAIB report itself admits that: 1. APU was not online. It takes 50-60 seconds to generate power. It's inlet door was only opening at 08:08:54 UTC 2. Dual engine shutdown So where did the energy for this miracle “recovery” come from? This then shifts the timestamp of when relight occurred. That it can't be crew-commanded but FADEC commanded. Since as per AAIB report & GE manuals, the relight that happened, where "engine 1 core deceleration stopped, reversed and progressed to recovery." There was no electrical power left on the plane at the 13th and 17th second after takeoff for such a relight. So this relight could only happen in a timestamp, where the engines were running fast. In a narrow window of 5-8 seconds, when the blades were spinning fast enough for full voltage electricity generation from the engine's generator (PMG). And it could've only happened if FADEC cutoff fuel at 08:08:45 UTC, under TCMA, when the plane's flight computers (FCMs) were rebooting - sending it temporarily into its default/fail-safe mode i.e. ground mode in air. And then relight happened for engine 1 and 2 between 08:08:45-50 UTC. So here's this thriller of a piece, edited by @Aarohanvasanth & @vaishnaroy - where you get an inside peak into the crash; how the plane went into degraded mode on its previous flight - AI 423 Delhi to Ahmedabad. How 10 years of internal correspondence on crash flight VT-ANB between Boeing & Air India; show Air India like Lion Air getting increasingly desperate dealing with a plane that had recurring issues in power generation, fire-inerter. This story shows how even after a major fire in Frankfurt that led to the plane's grounding -- Boeing remained pedantic in its approach; with short-term fixes rather than dealing with the long term design fix of what was going wrong with the plane's electrical architecture flaw. To the massive annoyance of Air India engineers, it's advice included usage of "duct tape, donuts & checks for water intrusion" when asked a question on how to deal with the burning of a critical (P100) power distribution panel. Engineers say this is like the Titanic signalling "Iceberg ahead" warnings & Boeing recommending they wipe the railings for a clean ship. frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/air…
