Air India 171 Update 26.7.25 – MISSING Flight Path Data
Jeffostroff has done another Air India 171 update here. And in the comment section of the video a mystery person has said this
@AltitudeWarrior
3 hours ago Two engines failed simultaneously because of a battery fire. Battery fire interrupted data relay from the ADIRU to both FADEC. Confirmed by loss of ADS-B data to FR24 website. When a FADEC loses environmental data, it shuts down fuel supply to engines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgAFZNkkNKw
In this article I’m going to check FlightRadar24 website to see if the commenter is correct and I’m going to dig into the Jeffostroff’s Sacred Timeline again to see if the prelim report actually makes sense.
Air India 171 Update – FlightRadar24
When does FlightRadar24 lose contact with Air India 171?
According to their article here, at 08:08:51. At the time, FlightRadar was receiving flight data from Air India 171 about once every two seconds.
FlightRadar24 vs Prelim Report
How does the ceasing of flight data fit with the timeline in the prelim report?
The prelim report says the first fuel control switch was turned to cutoff at 08:08:42 or “immediately thereafter”.
Engine 1 fuel control switch went to “Run” at 08:08:52.
Around the same time as the fuel control switch was put to “Run”, FlightRadar24 ceased getting data from Air India 171.
The Commenter
How does this fit with the commenter?
I’m not sure, but nevertheless FlightRadar24 gives us one more piece of information that was missing from the prelim report.
The cessation of data being broadcast from the plane may indicate something wrong, it may not.
More FlightRadar24 Data
Ahmedabad Airport is at an altitude of 189ft.
FlightRadar24 gives us a maximum broadcast altitude of 625 feet barometric.
Converting that to above ground altitude (625 – 189) gives us 436 feet.
436 feet is the maximum altitude broadcast, the actual altitude reached by the plane could have been more.
Strofoff
In strofoffs latest video and using the CCTV picture in the report showing RAT deployment, I think we can say that Air India 171 already had the RAT deployed at around 120 ft. And given a climb rate of 42 ft/sec, this tells us that by around 3.2 seconds after takeoff the RAT was already deployed.
And if we assume the whole process from initial desire for RAT deployment to RAT actually being down is one second, I think it’s fair to say we are looking at RAT deployment around 2.2 seconds after takeoff at the latest.
And the prelim report tells us that the first fuel control switch was put to cutoff at 08:08:42, 3 seconds after takeoff.
Basically what we have been saying until now. It looks like the RAT was deployed at the same time as the fuel control switch was moved to Cutoff or slightly before.
Prelim Timeline – Does it add up?
We have CCTV footage of the plane taking off.
At around 15/16 seconds in that video is when we see the plane leave the ground.
At around 23 seconds I would say we start to see the climb start to falter.
And at 26 seconds the plane stop gaining altitude.
I read that as around 7 seconds of normal flight time.
Yet the prelim report says the first fuel control switch was set to cutoff after 3 seconds and the second switch to cutoff 4 seconds after takeoff.
Does it take 3 seconds for engine to stop producing thrust after fuel is cutoff? If so, this is normal.
Strofoff – Climb Numbers
And if we come back to Strofoffs numbers of 42 ft/sec climb rate and highest measured altitude of 436 feet, what does that gives us as a period where the flight progressed normally?
436 divided by 42 gives us 10 seconds.
And 10 seconds is what we get from the video. 10 seconds between leaving the ground and stopping gaining altitude.
Ergo, approximately 7 seconds of normal flight time seems realistic to me.
Again, the question we have left is, how long does it take for the engine to stop producing thrust after fuel is cutoff? Is it 3/4 seconds or is it immediately.
Turn On Delay – Fuel Control Switches
If it does take 3-4 seconds for thrust to stop, this could help explain why there was an apparent 10 second delay between the switches going from Cutoff to back On. It looks like 10 seconds on the data but it took the pilot 4 seconds to realise something had gone wrong.
Summary – Air India 171 Update
Could an electrical problem explain the loss of flight path data on FlightRadar24?
I think it’s a possibility.
Could an electrical problem or perhaps fire cause a switch or switches to be read as Cutoff when they actually weren’t?
I guess with fire anything is possible.
Can an electrical problem cause issues with the ADIRU which in-turn could cause issues with the way the plane behaves?
Possibly
Could an electrical issue, explain why the Emergency Locator Transmitter did not trigger in the crash?
Possibly
Could an electrical issue explain why the RAT deployed so early?
Possibly
Is it possible that some electrical problem stopped the gear from being raised?
Possibly
Could an electrical issue in the cockpit cause some confusion between the pilots with regards to the status of clearly visible fuel control switches?
I think so
Is it possible all of the potential electrical anomalies listed above be explained by a single root cause eg a single fire or electrical problem?
Again, possibly.
