Air India 171 captured on CCTV.
The Agonizing Final Moments of Air India 171: A Tragic Dance with Gravity The open skies, long seen as a realm of freedom and flight, became the cruel stage for one of aviation’s most haunting tragedies. On that ill-fated day, Air India Flight 171 defied the air not with elegance—but with agony. It was supposed to be a routine ascent, a seamless journey from runway to sky. Instead, it became a heart-wrenching collapse, captured second by second in chilling clarity by airport CCTV cameras. In those final moments, the aircraft—still heavy with potential and passengers’ unspoken hopes—struggled like a bird caught in a storm. What should have been a steady climb transformed into a desperate, unnatural motion. The engines roared, not with confidence, but with strain. Then came the fatal pitch. The nose lifted too steeply—an aggressive angle of attack that pushed the aircraft into a stall. The wings, robbed of airflow and lift, ceased to function. What followed was not flight, but fa...