The final minutes before the Air India flight’s MAYDAY call a sudden engine fuel cutoff, pilot confusion, and frantic efforts to restart power culminating in disaster mere seconds after take-off.

On June 12, Flight AI‑171, a Boeing 787‑8 from Ahmedabad to London, lifted off at about 13:38 PM. Moments later, within just three seconds, both engine fuel-control switches flipped from “RUN” to “CUTOFF,” cutting off fuel supply and instantly starving the engines of thrust. For a brief moment, the pilots attempted to reverse this action switching back to “RUN” but only one engine managed to restart.

The cockpit voice recorder captured a tense exchange: one pilot asked, “Why did you cut off the fuel?” and the other replied, “I did not do so,” just before they issued a desperate “MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY” call. That emergency plea came roughly thirty-six seconds before the crash, during the aircraft’s rapid, uncontrolled descent toward a residential area near the airport.

Black boxes were swiftly recovered and analysed: the crash protection memory module provided clear data for AAIB investigators, who found no initial mechanical faults with the plane or its GE engines. The central mystery remains: why did both fuel switches toggle to cutoff in-flight? Investigators are weighing whether it was pilot error, a possible design flaw, or another cause.

The crash, which claimed at least 260 lives including 19 on the ground has triggered extensive inspections of the Boeing 787 fleet, prompted new safety recommendations, and sparked scrutiny from international authorities. While a definitive “why” is still elusive, the immediate sequence fuel cutoff, frantic reversal attempts, MAYDAY, and crash provides a chilling timeline of this tragedy’s final moments.