Air India plane crash had recently been fitted with a new engine, airline chairman reveals

The Air India plane that crashed and killed at least 270 people last week had one of its engines recently replaced, the airline’s chairman has revealed. 

Flight AI171 crashed less than a minute after taking off from the Indian city of Ahmedabad last Thursday, striking a medical college hostel and killing 241 of the 242 people on board and dozens more on the ground. 

In an interview with an Indian news channel, Air India chairman N. Chandrasekaran said that both engines of the aircraft had ‘clean’ histories. 

He said: ‘The right engine was a new engine put in March 2025. The left engine was last serviced in 2023 and due for its next maintenance check in December 2025.’

As investigators sift through debris and decode the flight data from the plane’s blackboxes, both of which were recovered this week,  Chandrasekaran urged the public not to speculate on what caused the crash. 

‘There are a lot of speculations and a lot of theories. But the fact that I know so far is this particular aircraft, this specific tail, AI171, has a clean history. 

‘I am told by all the experts that the black box and recorders will definitely tell the story. So, we just have to wait for that.’

It comes as the sole survivor of the crash, 40-year-old British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, admitted he was overcome with survivor’s guilt after his brother Ajay died on the same flight. 

A view shows the wreckage of an Air India aircraft, bound for London’s Gatwick Airport, which crashed during take-off from an airport in Ahmedabad, India June 12, 2025

A crane removes the wreckage of the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, which crashed during take-off from an airport, in Ahmedabad, India June 14, 2025

Flight AI171 crashed less than a minute after taking off from the Indian city of Ahmedabad last Thursday

The plane struck a medical college hostel, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and dozens more on the ground (File image of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner)

Vishwash said: ‘It’s a miracle I survived. I am OK physically but I feel terrible that I could not save Ajay.’ 

He said he had tried to book two seats next to each other on flight AI171, which crashed into a densely populated part of the city of Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff. 

But by the time he came to make the reservation, he was forced to pick two seats apart from each other in row 11. 

Vishwash said: ‘If we had been sat together we both might have survived.

‘I tried to get two seats together but someone had already got one. Me and Ajay would have been sitting together. 

‘But I lost my brother in front of my eyes. So now I am constantly thinking ‘Why can’t I save my brother?’

Vishwash, who was sitting next to one of the plane’s emergency exits, was able to crawl through a hole in the twisted fuselage of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

His brother Ajay, who was sitting in seat 11J, tragically died alongside a further 240 passengers and crew.  

Footage exclusively obtained by MailOnline showed Vishwash tried going back to the site of the inferno to save his brother.

Brit Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was sitting in seat 11A, said it was a ‘miracle’ he survived last Thursday’s disaster that killed 279 people

British national Vishwash, 40, from Leicester, had plasters on his face and was walking with a limp as he held up the casket of his sibling Ajay

Vishwash was later seen crying in anguish, and had to be carried away 

Vishwash told the first emergency service worker on site: ‘My family member is in there, my brother and he’s burning to death. I have to save him.’

Emergency worker Satinder Singh Sandhu said: ‘I walked nearer to Mr Ramesh, grabbed him by the arm and led him away to a waiting ambulance. 

‘I had no idea that he was a passenger on the plane and thought he was a resident of the hostel or a passer-by.

‘He was very disoriented and shocked and was limping. There was also blood on his face, but he was able to speak.

‘He told the paramedics that he was flying to London when the plane fell and that he wanted to go back to save his family.’ 

Vishwash, who had plasters on his face, was yesterday seen carrying his brother’s coffin at a ceremony in Gujarat.

He was later seen crying in anguish and had to be taken away.