Civil Aviation Ministry Confirms Mayday Call Before Ahmedabad Plane Crash

By A Staff Reporter

Ahmedabad, June 13 — In a press briefing on the Air India Flight AI-171 tragedy, Civil Aviation Ministry Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha revealed critical preliminary details surrounding the crash that killed 241 passengers. The incident, one of India’s worst aviation disasters in recent memory, took place in Meghani Nagar, approximately 2 km from Ahmedabad Airport.

According to Sinha, the Dreamliner aircraft reached a height of 650 feet before it began to lose altitude. The pilot issued a Mayday call to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) shortly thereafter, alerting them to a possible emergency.

“As per ATC records, after the Mayday call at 7:03 PM on June 12, they attempted to re-establish communication with the aircraft. There was no response. Exactly one minute later, the plane crashed,” said Sinha.

Notably, the same aircraft had successfully completed its Paris–Delhi–Ahmedabad sector just hours earlier without any reported issues. This detail may become vital in the ongoing investigation, being jointly conducted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Air India, with technical support from aircraft manufacturer Boeing.