Ahmedabad plane crash: 5 common reasons why air mishaps happen

An Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad on Thursday. The plane was bound for London when it crashed into the Meghani area of the city in Gujarat. Videos circulating online show a massive plume of black smoke coming from the crash site.

Soon after the crash, Air India issued a statement, stating that it was gathering information about the crash. “Flight AI171, operating Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, was involved in an incident today, 12 June 2025. At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates at the earliest on http://airindia.com and on our X handle,” the airline company said in the statement.

The initial report suggested that the plane had a capacity of 300 people, and 242 passengers were onboard at the time of the crash. Since it was a long journey, the flight was heavily fueled, which added to the intensity of the explosion and the fire that followed after the crash. There is currently no official confirmation on casualties, but the authorities fear many deaths.

While the cause of the crash is yet to be revealed, here are 5 common reasons for commercial plane crashes.

5 common reasons why commercial air mishaps happen

It is extremely hard to find the main causes of commercial aircraft crashes since one case can be different from another. In a 2015 article for The Conversation, British aviation safety expert Simon Ashley Bennett, director of the Civil Safety and Security Unit at the University of Leicester, specified the following five reasons why such crashes occur:

• Error on the Pilot’s end

While modern aircraft are technologically advanced and more reliable, there is always room for human error. Because pilots actively engage with the aircraft at every stage of a flight, there are numerous opportunities for this to go wrong. According to the record statistics shared by Planecrashinfo.com, pilot error has been the reason behind 50 per cent of commercial aircraft crashes.

Experts believe that a plane can crash if the pilot fails to program the vital flight-management computer (FMC) correctly or miscalculates the required fuel to lift. No matter how technologically advanced planes have become, the pilot remains the last line of defence when things go catastrophically wrong.

• Mechanical failure

Experts noted that mechanical failure still accounts for 20 per cent of aircraft mishaps. There have been instances when the engines of the aircraft suffered catastrophic failures, leading to a devastating plane crash.

• Harsh weather conditions

Bad weather can account for around 10 per cent of aircraft losses. Despite a plethora of electronic aids like gyroscopic compasses, satellite navigation and weather data uplinks, aircraft still founder in storms, snow and fog. However, bad weather is least likely to be the cause of the Thursday plane crash.

• Sabotage

About 10 per cent of aircraft losses are caused by sabotage. Interestingly, the risk posed by sabotage to commercial aircraft is much less than many people seem to believe. Nevertheless, there have been numerous spectacular and shocking attacks by saboteurs in aviation history. One of the prime examples of this is the 9/11 terror attack in the United States, which was conducted by Al Qaeda under the leadership of globally recognised terrorist Osama Bin Laden.

• Other forms of human error

Aviation experts usually attribute the remaining losses to other forms of human errors, like mistakes made by air traffic controllers, dispatchers, loaders, fullers or maintenance engineers. Sometimes, maintenance engineers, who have been working long shifts, can make potentially catastrophic mistakes.

In the Thursday plane crash in Ahmedabad, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is expected to initiate a formal investigation, along with a possible technical team from Boeing. Experts are suggesting that a heavy fuel load could have worsened the crash and even complicated the rescue efforts.