38 Hours After A171 Crash, Air India’s AI187 Drops 900 Feet Mid-Air
Shortly after the Air India A171 crash, which shocked the world and claimed the lives of 270 people, another Air India wide-body aircraft narrowly avoided what could have been a serious accident. Within 38 hours of the Ahmedabad plane crash, a Delhi–Vienna Boeing 777 aircraft operating as AI187 received multiple critical warnings shortly after its takeoff.
Soon after its takeoff, the flight dropped 900 feet mid-air. Both pilots have now been off-rostered pending the outcome of the investigation, the airline said. Though the pilots had managed to stabilise the aircraft, which later completed its flight to Vienna safely, the incident had triggered a formal investigation by the DGCA.
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The Boeing 777 reportedly triggered a Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) alert, specifically a “don’t sink” warning, after the aircraft reportedly lost around 900 feet of altitude during its climb from Delhi.
As per the flight tracking website, the Boeing 777 departed Delhi at 2:56 am on June 14 amid stormy weather conditions. Delhi was experiencing a thunderstorm at the time. As per a TOI report, the officials have said, “The aircraft was involved in an in-flight occurrence of stick shaker and GPWS caution. Soon after takeoff, the stick shaker warning and GPWS don’t sink caution appeared. Stall warning came once, and GPWS caution came twice. There was an altitude loss of around 900 feet during climb. Subsequently, the crew recovered the aircraft and continued the flight to Vienna.”
Usually, the stick shaker system triggers a vibrating control column and loud noise in the cockpit to warn pilots of a serious flight condition requiring immediate action. Since the crew had responded promptly and successfully completed the journey to Vienna, which lasted for 9 hours and 8 minutes.
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As the flights had to take longer routes due to airspace closure, the aircraft planned a technical halt in Europe before continuing on to Toronto with a fresh crew.
However, officials pointed out that the post-flight report for the Delhi–Vienna leg only cited “stick shaker due to turbulence after takeoff,” without detailing other significant alerts. Due to the recent A171 crash, a deeper review of the flight data recorder had revealed additional warnings, including the “don’t sink” GPWS alert and a stall warning, that had not been documented earlier.
