The Final “Mayday” from Air India Boeing 787
On June 12, 2025, Air India Flight AI 171, a Boeing 787‑8 Dreamliner bound for London, issued a desperate Mayday call just moments after lifting off from Ahmedabad. Pilots could be heard struggling in the cockpit as the aircraft failed to gain altitude. According to official records, “Mayday… we have lost thrust… descending,” preceded the sudden loss of radio contact. At approximately 625 feet altitude, around 1:38 pm local time, the aircraft began a precipitous descent. Survivors and bystanders recount scenes of flames engulfing the BJ Medical College campus, where the aircraft made impact. Of the 242 souls aboard, 241 perished, alongside at least four on the ground; only one passenger survived.
Transcripts from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) reveal harrowing exchanges. The captain’s voice, tense but controlled, is heard saying, “We are losing thrust, gear is down, flaps retracted… Mayday.” Statistically, this crash is India’s worst civil aviation accident in over a decade, and the first fatal accident involving the Dreamliner airframe.
Early investigative theories point to a combination of engine failure and flight configuration error. Some experts suspect premature retraction of flaps while landing gear remained deployed, leading to insufficient lift and early stall. Additional factors under scrutiny include possible bird ingestion or fuel contamination damaging the engines. Boeing and GE Aerospace are actively collaborating with Indian authorities, with black boxes recovered and analysed by international teams from the US and the UK.
Jeju Air Boeing 737‑800: Six Minutes of Terror
A chilling echo from December 29, 2024, involves Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, a Boeing 737‑800 landing at Muan International Airport, South Korea. Ancient warnings of bird activity preceded a violent bird strike on both engines. Pilots declared an emergency and attempted a go‑around, heard in the transcript: “Mayday, bird strike, climbing now.” The recording ends as the aircraft descends in an uncontrolled belly landing, skidding into a concrete wall and erupting in flames.
179 of the 181 aboard perished—all but two flight attendants. Autopsies of cockpit transcripts suggest that the aircraft’s landing gear was not deployed, and that during a low-pass manoeuvre, the crew misjudged their altitude under rapidly deteriorating conditions. Preliminary forensic analysis identified duck remains—Baikal Teals—in both engines, confirming a massive bird strike.
Flight data indicated the airbags were down and flaps remained partially extended, but pilots lost lift during the emergency descent. Critical debate arose over the concrete wall’s placement, which failed to collapse upon impact, exacerbating the crash’s lethality. The tragedy, South Korea’s deadliest in decades, remains under intense international scrutiny, with the NTSB, FAA, Boeing, and local investigators involved.
Tenerife Disaster, 1977: Mayday Lost in Fog
The deadliest aviation disaster in history involved KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736 on March 27, 1977, at Los Rodeos (Tenerife) Airport in the Canary Islands. In dense fog, KLM's takeoff roll began prematurely as Pan Am still occupied the runway. A garbled mix of transmissions ended abruptly after the KLM captain said, “We’re going,” a moment later colliding with Pan Am’s 747.
Mayday calls were not recorded in CVR transcripts—radio transmissions ceased seconds before impact, with no integrated distress call. The crash claimed 583 lives, prompting sweeping reforms to international aviation protocols: mandatory standardised English phraseology, adoption of crew resource management (CRM), and revised takeoff clearance procedures.
Aeroflot Flight 593: A Child in the Cockpit
On March 23, 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593—an Airbus A310—crashed into a Siberian mountain after a teenager in the cockpit unintentionally disabled the autopilot. CVR transcripts reveal a sudden alarm and the following panicked exchange:
“What’s happening? The wings… we’re rolling!”
“I’m trying… we’ve lost control!”.
Flight data shows a steep bank followed by a stall. The crew erroneously overcompensated, pulling into a dive too late to recover from low altitude. All 75 aboard died. A Mayday was never declared; the abruptness of events left no time. The incident, featured in Mayday’s “Kid in the Cockpit,” led to strict enforcement of prohibitions on children in cockpits.
Charkhi Dadri Mid‑Air Collision, 1996: Tragedy in Indian Skies
On November 12, 1996, tragedy struck near Delhi when Saudia Flight 763 (Boeing 747) and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 (Ilyushin Il‑76) collided mid-air. One final Mayday utterance came from Kazakhstan Airlines at 5:20 pm local time: “Mayday, collision…” followed by silence. The crash, which claimed all 349 lives aboard both flights, remains the deadliest mid-air collision ever.
Investigators blamed the Kazakh crew’s failure to maintain assigned altitude and poor English communication skills. Deficiencies in crew resource management further compounded the errors. This disaster prompted India and other nations to mandate Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS) in commercial aircraft, establishing international standards for collision prevention.
JAL Flight 123, 1985: Prolonged Suffering in the Sky
Japan Airlines Flight 123, a Boeing 747SR‑46, suffered explosive decompression on August 12, 1985, due to a faulty repair from a tailstrike seven years earlier. A recorded Mayday, heard as “Mayday… we’re losing hydraulics… returning to Tokyo,” marked the start of a prolonged ordeal. The crippled aircraft became nearly uncontrollable, flying 32 agonizing minutes before impacting Mount Takamagahara.
Of 524 aboard, only four survived the initial crash; subsequent rescue failures meant only four ultimately lived. Final accident reports, supported by NTSB and AAIC, cited the improper repair as the sole cause. This disaster spurred reforms in aircraft maintenance transparency, emergency response protocols, and reinforced the importance of structural integrity checks.
Common Threads in Mayday Transcripts
Analysis of cockpit transcripts across disasters reveals striking commonalities. Pilots consistently issue terse, urgent Mayday calls: “Mayday… engine failure,” “Mayday… control lost,” “Mayday… collision.” These are their final attempts to regain control. In each case, whether sudden like Aeroflot 593 or drawn out as in JAL 123, situational awareness and crew coordination degraded dangerously fast.
Human factors remain a recurring theme. From Tenerife’s communication failure to JAL’s maintenance oversight, from Charkhi Dadri’s altitude mismanagement to Aeroflot’s child‑in‑cockpit distraction, systemic breakdowns occur when procedures falter. After every catastrophe, aviation authorities responded: mandating CRM, TCAS, standardised phraseology, and maintenance audits. Mayday episodes distilled these lessons, underscoring that safety is layered and trustworthy only if every link holds firm.
