Words that aren't letting me sleep since last week.
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February 14, 2017
GoAir Flight G8 329 Mumbai to Delhi.
Airbus A320. Pratt & Whitney engines.
My first Valentine’s Day after wedding.
I was flying to surprise my wife.
A few 100 kms before Delhi, the hum changed.
The aircraft banked.
Then came the pilot's voice:
“We’ve had a technical snag in the left engine. Cabin crew, prepare for Emergency Landing procedures.”
I was shit scared. Of dying.
To say the cabin was tense would be an understatement.
Passengers were praying with eyes tight shut.
One engine had failed.
But the other held on.
We descended rapidly - but steadily.
And pilot landed safely in Delhi.
All 183 passengers had been given a 2nd life.
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June 12, 2025
Air India Flight AI 171 Ahmedabad to London
Boeing 787 Dreamliner. GE GEnx engines.
At 650 feet, just moments after takeoff, a dreaded phrase echoes in the cockpit:
“Thrust not achieved.. Falling. Mayday.”
But this time, no second engine.
However improbable "simultaneous dual engine failure" had ever been, there was no margin this time.
No miracle.
A crash. Fiery explosion.
241 lives lost onboard.
28 more on ground.
Only 1 survivor (now famous seat 11A)
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As a Mechanical Engineer who once obsessed over jet propulsion, fluid dynamics, and thermal failure margins - I can’t sleep.
Because this isn't a mystery.
A 787 Dreamliner can theoretically fly nearly 4,500 km on 1 engine under cruise, high-altitude conditions.
But a failure at low altitude (during takeoff climb) is a vastly different, extremely dangerous scenario.
So let’s call it what it is:
It is no coincidence that major commercial airplane crashes, globally, in recent years have been Boeing's.
Boeing, you built the Dreamliner with dreams of market dominance, not infallibility.
GE Aerospace, your GEnx engine has long faced bleed air anomalies & instability issues - documented.
Pilots reported it.
Engineers flagged it.
Whistleblowers screamed into the void.
And they've paid a highly disturbing price.
John Barnett (Quality Manager at Boeing 787 Dreamliner assembly plant) tried to expose the safety lapses. He was found dead in March, 2024 - shot - while testifying against Boeing.
Joshua Dean (Boeing 737 Max - Supplier Auditor), another whistleblower, mysteriously passed away just weeks later in April, 2024.
Others have been intimidated, gagged, or buried under threats & legal muscle over the years.
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This isn’t just a crash.
It is the system collapsing under the weight of its own cover-ups.
How many more engineers must be silenced before we stop flying blind?
How many more have to burn before the Aircraft maker faces the very flames they've lit in greed?
Meanwhile, we keep flying.
Trusting.
Boarding jets built on compromised confidence.
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