Air India crash: Investigation focuses on pilots. Software bugs reported in the past.

The video clearly shows the plane begin to climb and then suddenly lose altitude until it crashes. It's June 12, 2025, and Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Ahmedabad to London, crashes just seconds after takeoff. 260 people die, including 19 on the ground. Only one person on board survives.

The recent preliminary report released by the Indian Air Force raises questions, but no definitive answers. In the final moments recorded on board, one of the pilots asks, "Why did you cut the fuel to the engines?" The other responds that he didn't. Then the switches for the two engines are reactivated, but it's too late. The plane, at low altitude, runs out of thrust and crashes.

It's still unclear whether the action was intentional or accidental. The two switches, located between the two pilots, are equipped with a spring-loaded locking mechanism to prevent accidental use.

The US FAA had already reported in 2018 that these switches on some Boeing aircraft, including 787s, were vulnerable to involuntary movement. However, Air India allegedly failed to perform the recommended inspections because they were not mandatory. This detail fueled suspicions of human error linked to a mechanical problem.

But there is another, alternative hypothesis, which points to a possible software problem with the engine management systems that may have sent an incorrect command without any real manual input.

This hypothesis harks back to a problem with the Boeing 787, discovered by the FAA in 2015. A software bug that, after 248 days of continuous operation, could reset a software counter and shut down the electric generators. Hence the directive: restart the aircraft's systems at least every 120 days.