The Last Flight of AI-171

June 12, 2025. The sun scorched the tarmac at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The air shimmered with heat, but no one expected what was coming .

At 1:38 PM , Air India Flight AI-171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London, began its takeoff roll . Onboard: 242 people — families, students , business travelers , and crew . The aircraft lifted, but something was wrong . It climbed sluggishly ,  unnaturally low .

Thirty - four seconds later, it vanished behind the buildings .

A deafening blast shattered the silence . The plane had crashed into the BJ Medical College hostel in Meghani Nagar . The mess hall, filled with students eating lunch, became an inferno. Flames devoured walls. Screams echoed through the corridors. Metal twisted. Glass exploded .

“I saw a body fall from the second floor, still on fire,” said a rescue worker.  
“There were shoes… just shoes. No feet in them.”

The death toll : 241 onboard , **38 on the ground . Only one man survived—Vishwash Kumar , a British national of Indian origin . He was found crawling from the wreckage, burned and dazed, whispering : _“It didn’t want to fly.”_

The pilot’s final words, captured in the black box , were:  
_“Thrust not achieved… falling… Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!”_  
Then silence.

There was no storm. No bird strike. No warning. The aircraft had passed inspection . So what failed?

Who is responsible when everything seems right — until it isn’t ?
Air India ? Boeing ? The maintenance crew ? The government ?

The government promised compensation . But can money replace a heartbeat ?  
Can it bring back the students who were laughing over lunch just moments before ?  
Can it resurrect a father who promised to return with gifts from London ?

Can they give life… or only silence wrapped in currency ?

Inside Civil Hospital , doctors worked through the night. DNA samples were taken from charred remains. Families waited in corridors , clutching photos , praying for a miracle that never came .

" We were treating our own classmates , ” said a young intern . “ Some of them were still breathing when they arrived. And then… they weren’t . ”

A 17 - year - old boy , who accidentally filmed the crash from his rooftop, hasn’t spoken since . His video went viral. But he wishes he’d never looked up.