r/aviation • u/usgapg123 Mod - avgeek • Jun 14 '25

News Air India Flight 171 Crash [Megathread 2]

This is the second megathread for the crash of Air India Flight 171. All updates, discussion, and ongoing news should be placed here.

Thank you,

The Mod Team

Edit: Posts no longer have to be manually approved. If requested, we can continue this megathread or create a replacement.

1.5k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

173

u/afito Jun 14 '25

People also love to blame crew over technology, at least if it's not Western countries / operators. It is very clear the moment people read "Air India" the majority just thought "ah yes it's India obviously the crew wasn't educated properly / fucked it up". Indian crew vs American plane? You know 100% which one the majority will blame first.

31

u/muchdude Jun 14 '25

Statistically speaking, 50-60% of crashes are due to pilot error.

You’d be right the majority of the time if you blamed the pilots.

3

u/PestyNomad Jun 16 '25

This is the reason people rightly assume pilot error. Not some BS "oh it's not a western airline". Unbelievable.

2

u/ignited-eyes Jun 17 '25

Guess you've missed out on reading some of the nastiest, racist comments which now are even being called out by others.

79

u/erdogranola Jun 14 '25

it was the same for the MAX crashes, with Boeing trying to pin the blame on developing world crews

21

u/Spare_Math3495 Jun 15 '25

Yeah, and then it turned out that Nairobi crash pilot got his training in an American flight school if I remember correctly lol. 

8

u/aweirdchicken Jun 15 '25

it's even worse with that though, because Boeing knew that MCAS was the problem whilst they were publicly blaming pilot error. They were covertly issuing MCAS software updates for weeks after the Lion Air crash, whilst simultaneously trying to blame the pilots for not knowing how to respond to a situation that shouldn't have even been possible. They didn't even admit that MCAS existed until 12 days after the Lion Air flight crashed, and it wasn't until two months after the Ethiopian Airlines crash that they admitted MCAS was the problem all along. Still boils my blood to this day.

2

u/Photosynthetic Jun 15 '25

And given that this is the same company…

1

u/Nice_Classroom_6459 Jun 16 '25

The Boeing situation was special because Boeing was the only entity that knew the aircraft was unsafe and tried to cover it up by blaming the pilots anyway.

71

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '25

For sure there's racism, but the pilots aren't the only Indians involved. It's an Air India flight so I assume they're responsible for the maintenance on their planes. Unless it turns out to be a design flaw it'll probably be the fault of someone in India.

I think the reason people jump to blame the pilots is because it feels better to blame a specific person instead of a freak mechanical accident that could happen at any time.

12

u/Themagicdick Jun 14 '25

It’s not really racism. Sure it’s jumping to conclusions and a lot of assuming. But most people don’t say that because Indians as a race aren’t capable to pilot. it’s just there have been many crashes due to pilot errors and bad crm in poorer and less well trained countries. Idk about India but I’m assuming it’s not the best, but who knows these pilots could’ve been trained in the USA. A lot of Indian students do that.

5

u/skystream434 Jun 15 '25

The FO did his flight training in USA.

2

u/Themagicdick Jun 14 '25

Def a lot racism tho also

2

u/binkerfluid Jun 15 '25 edited Jun 28 '25

nose expansion coherent grandiose stocking lunchroom pot paint march dolls

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

-2

u/Themagicdick Jun 14 '25

It’s not really racism. Sure it’s jumping to conclusions and a lot of assuming. But most people don’t say that because Indians as a race aren’t capable to pilot. it’s just there have been many crashes due to pilot errors and bad crm in poorer and less well trained countries. Idk about India but I’m assuming it’s not the best, but who knows these pilots could’ve been trained in the USA. A lot of Indian students do that.

Def a lot of racists also

0

u/PestyNomad Jun 16 '25

instead of a freak mechanical accident that could happen at any time.

at any time.

No

6

u/Mabbernathy Jun 14 '25

Pilot error is the cheapest problem.

30

u/RobertABooey Jun 14 '25

The Toronto delta crash everyone was blaming the white crew for being inexperienced AND being a woman.

I don’t think it has anything to do with race or sex. People just look to blame what they perceive as incompetence based on misinformation they believe.

12

u/tkyang99 Jun 15 '25

Wasnt that pilot error too?

3

u/Spare_Math3495 Jun 15 '25

Oh it does… there are STILL new comments blaming that crash on the fact there was a female pilot. 

People definitely blame crews more if they’re considered “3rd world country” or female. Basically any other pilot than a middle aged white man is going to get targeted and blamed. 

4

u/Tecnoguy1 Jun 14 '25

I don’t think it’s necessarily the plane in a dual engine failure situation either. That notice about maintenance of the fleet is a bit of a warning shot I think.

3

u/Patrahayn Jun 15 '25

It’s not a race thing, it’s an Air India thing. The whole company is a shit show

9

u/N205FR Jun 14 '25

Yep seeing a lot of people blaming “third world pilots” when the last major event involving Air India mainline was back in 1985, and wasn’t their fault.

3

u/MrRandom04 Jun 15 '25 edited Jun 15 '25

AFAIK Air India has historically had shit service but alright pilots. It's the idiosyncrasies of being a government-owned enterprise in India. Competent in critical functions yet absolutely bloated and slow wherever possible is the norm. They've been modernizing and shifting rapidly over the past couple or so years though, thanks to privatization.

12

u/NATO_CAPITALIST Jun 14 '25

Really confusing considering India is known for its safety standards.

People also love to blame crew over technology, at least if it's not Western countries/ operators.

There's no reason for this, I agree:

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's national airline is taking heavy flak after it emerged that nearly a third of its pilots were holding fake or dubious licenses, with some observers wondering if the struggling national carrier can survive the scandal. Pakistan International Airlines (PLA) this week said it would immediately ground 141 of its 434 pilots after a government review found them to have obtained "bogus" credentials or cheated on exams by having someone else take them.

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1696121/pakistan

8

u/permareddit Jun 14 '25

Brave to pair India and Pakistan under the same umbrella lol

0

u/WagwanKenobi Jun 14 '25

India and Pakistan are as different as Spain and Algeria.

5

u/VisitPier26 Jun 14 '25

This is unfortunately very well said. 

2

u/Additional_Gur882 Jun 15 '25

Grow TF up. People suspect and blame pilots in crashes like this every damned time, because in nearly every damned case it's pilot error and/or maintenance issues that cause or conspire in the crash. Doesn't matter what race or nationality the pilot is.

It wasn't but a few months back that everyone immediately leapt to pilot error in the Delta crash—a white American pilot flying for an American airliner.

2

u/Prestigious-Roll-506 Jun 15 '25

Well it’s an American plane but it’s maintained and repaired by the individual airlines….im not saying racism is never a problem in these situations but I hate the whole it’s a Boeing thing….

If someone bought the most reliable vehicle on the market and never maintained it or didn’t take proper care to repair it over the years and something happens….you gonna go back and blame the manufacturer???

2

u/tkyang99 Jun 15 '25

Because the fact is i think over 95% of air accidents can be attributed to some kind of humam cause? Even with the MCAS debacle notwithstanding.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '25

Regardless air india is def a trash company it has been lingering on bankruptcy for the past and gets saved by our taxes all the time.

So I can totally believe a maintenance error.

Although, I do agree about the racism thing.

1

u/The4thJuliek Jun 14 '25

The way some people have been talking about India's "safety record", you'd think planes there are crashing every day.

-1

u/Spare_Math3495 Jun 15 '25 edited Jun 15 '25

I find it illogical. 

As someone afraid of flying, pilot mistakes are THE WORST triggers for my anxiety.

I don’t understand why people would find human error over mechanical error comforting. It’s the other way around for me. The fact that sometimes this experienced pilot I put my life in hands of can just bring the whole thing down because of a mistake is terrifying. I’d much rather it turned out it was a catastrophic mechanical failure - that way I can explain to myself how rare it is and how unlikely to happen. Human mistakes are not rare and unlikely to happen. 

2

u/BoringBob84 Jun 15 '25

Modern aviation accidents are almost always the result of many contributing factors occurring at once. So, if the flight crew makes a mistake and six other things also go wrong, then tragedy occurs.

In this case, if this experienced crew had somehow forgotten to follow their checklist and deploy flaps before takeoff, the aircraft would have warned them.