Boeing has a long road ahead. The latest disaster for the airlines involves Air India Flight AI171 from Ahmedabad, India to Gatwick Airport in London, which crashed after takeoff, causing the passing of 241 people onboard, and others on the ground. One person on the plane survived.
The type of plane that crashed, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, had been the jewel in Boeing’s crown after a rash of problems on some of the company’s other jets. Until this week, no 787 had ever crashed.
Highlights
- Before the Air India crash, a passenger flew on the same plane on a different flight
- The passenger shows what appears to be a faulty AC and entertainment system
- Netizens caution the passenger’s video could be stirring conspiracy theories
Now, as Boeing investigates what happened on that fateful flight, video has emerged from an earlier flight on the same plane, showing a passenger having trouble with the plane's electronic system.
“Nothing is working”: Video of the same plane that crashed showed early problems
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Before Boeing’s Flight AI171 left Ahmedabad for London, the plane had completed another flight from Delhi to Ahmedabad.
On that flight, a person named Akash Vatsa made a video before the plane left the ground.
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“We are almost about to taxi. But the AC is not working,” Vatsa is heard saying. While clicking several buttons on the handset, Vatsa declares: “Nothing is working.”
“Look at everyone,” he says, showing people in the rest of the cabin using magazines to fan themselves. “AC is not working at all. And as usual, the TV screens are not working. Not even the light is working,” Vatsa said.
On social media, Vatsa said he was planning on sending the video to Air India as a complaint. At the end of the clip he asks: “ Is this what you are providing?” in a rhetorical question to the airlines.
“Cutting corners and ignoring passengers”: Netizens react to video of same plane that crashed taken hours prior
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The video of the same Boeing jet that, hours later, would explode into a fireball, has gotten millions of views online.
Whether the faulty entertainment system, or non-existent air conditioning on the previous flight actually played a role in the later crash of the same plane, has not yet been determined.
What investigators do know is that the flight is being called one of the worst aviation accidents in years.
About 30 seconds after takeoff, with parts of its landing gear still down, the plane was seen in multiple videos rising, then falling almost as quickly, before crashing into a medical college hostel during lunch hour.
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The only known surviving passenger from the flight is 40-year old Ramesh Viswashkumar, who was seated in an emergency exit row. In interviews with the Hindustan Times he said he had been traveling with his brother, but was not seated next to him.
"When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me," he told the publication. "Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital."
The passengers included 217 adults, 11 children and two infants, Reuters news agency is reporting. The number of people who may have perished on the ground is still unclear.
Netizens did not hold back in sharing their theories on what happened
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“The way the flight went helplessly down, it just looked like a major systems failure,” one person said.
“This reeks of problems with the auxiliary power unit. How can @airindia ignore this and allow this to go on without grounding the flight?” asked another.
Some comments focused on parent company Tata Group, which bought Air India a few years ago.
“For #Tata, money is the only thing important. Ever since they took over #AirIndia is a mess. Cutting corners, ignoring passenger comfort and now ignoring warning signs leading to compromised safety and air crash,” the person noted.
More information about the victims on Air India Flight AI171 is slowly emerging
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Devastating stories are beginning to unfold about the people who lost their lives on the flight.
In one case, a family of five, mother, father and three young children, posted a final photo sitting together on the plane, moments before takeoff.
In their final family selfie, the couple was captured sitting together, while their three kids beamed away in the same row before becoming victims of one of the deadliest aviation disasters in years.
One crash theory in particular has been gaining traction, that of nefarious motivations
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It didn’t take long for the public, or even those in the industry, to begin hypothesizing about the cause of the crash.
Julian Bray, who bills himself as an aviation expert and journalist, has told The Daily Mail that “evil intent” may be at play, instead of some kind of mechanical failure.
He later concluded on Sky News that, because of Boeing’s stellar record with the 787 Dreamliner, technical faults were likely not the cause.
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Still other aviation experts have suggested that a flock of birds could be the cause.
Former pilot Saurabh Bhatnagar told New Delhi TV that from the footage they’ve seen it appears that both engines lost power due to a bird strike.
An aviation instructor from Australia, Guy Hirst meanwhile, told ABC that a bird strike could have caused the incident, although the airport had been taking measures to reduce that possibility.
“The power unit is off while the plane is stationary”: video from earlier flight could be fueling conspiracy theories
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The investigation into what really happened will take a while. Officials from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration said during a news conference that for now, they will not call for the grounding of the 1,100 or so Dreamliners that are currently circulating globally.
The officials said members from the National Transportation Safety Board, Boeing, and General Electrics Aerospace are headed to the region to investigate.
"They have to get on the ground and take a look. But again, right now it'd be way too premature," Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation, told reporters. "People are looking at videos and trying to assess what happened, which is never a strong, smart way to make decisions on what took place."
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Netizens with aviation hobbies or knowledge of the industry were quick to quash theories that the plane’s non-working AC and entertainment units played any role in the later crash, calling them conspiracy-driven.
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“The conspiracy theorists are gathering like flies as speculation mounts about Air India's safety record, and the AC not working is just one of them. More often than not, the auxiliary power unit is off while the plane is stationary or at the gate,” said one person.
“This is always the case with Air India. Always shoddy entertainment system and seats. Entertainment not functioning properly can’t be the reason for the crash,” another noted.
While other comments were more straightforward about the company that made the plane: “Can we all agree that Boeing makes sh**ty planes?”
The recent Air India crash was not the first devastating aviation incident this year
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This has not been a great year for air travel. Already in 2025, several high-profile incidents have made headlines.
One of the most memorable was the tragic passing of more than a dozen members of the US Figure Skating team and their coaches when their plane collided with an army helicopter in the skies over Washington, DC.
Netizens analyze video from previous flight on same plane that crashed, some calling it conspiracy-inducing
