Just moments before disaster struck, Drs. Komi Vyas and Prateek Joshi captured a final, joyful selfie aboard Air India Flight 171, smiling alongside their three young children. It was meant to be a snapshot of hope—the beginning of a new chapter as they moved to London. But within minutes of takeoff from Ahmedabad, their dream turned into a nightmare.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner plunged from the sky shortly after reaching just 625 feet, sending a chilling Mayday call before crashing into a residential area near a medical college. The impact was catastrophic—241 lives were lost, including the Vyas-Joshi family, in one of the deadliest aviation tragedies in recent Indian history.
Only one person, British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, survived. In harrowing detail, he described crawling out of the smoldering wreckage, surrounded by chaos, debris, and bodies. His survival, nothing short of miraculous, stands in haunting contrast to the overwhelming loss.
Experts are now piecing together what went wrong. Preliminary data reveals the aircraft never stabilized after takeoff. Investigators are considering several possibilities: a bird strike, sudden engine failure, or a rapid shift in wind patterns. Clear skies ruled out weather as a contributing factor.
As search crews work to recover the black box, families mourn, and aviation authorities worldwide await answers. What caused Flight 171 to fall from the sky remains uncertain—but the heartbreak it left behind is undeniable.
