Produced by: Manoj Kumar
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On a 43°C Ahmedabad tarmac, invisible heat may have triggered aviation’s silent killer: vapor lock. Aviation expert Steve Scheibner explains how extreme heat can vaporize fuel lines—choking both engines mid-air.
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Seconds after liftoff, the Boeing 787 fell eerily quiet. No thrust, no climb—just the whir of a ram air turbine. Veteran pilot Scheibner calls it a “textbook dual engine failure”—the rarest nightmare aloft.
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The tanks were full. The engines were fresh. The right engine was reportedly overhauled and reinstalled just three months ago. So why did both engines go silent at once?
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The ram air turbine (RAT) deploys only in total electrical loss. It did. Instantly. That emergency windmill—last line of power defense—may be the clearest sign of catastrophic dual failure.
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At rotation, the Dreamliner surged. Seconds later, it plunged—gear still down, no fire, no flare. Did a full flameout or mid-air stall turn ascent into immediate descent?
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No explosion. No blaze. Eyewitnesses describe a horrifyingly silent impact. Total engine loss could explain why India’s deadliest air crash in over a decade happened without a fireball.
Fresh from a March engine replacement and a 2023 maintenance check, the aircraft had no known mechanical red flags. Is modern aviation’s faith in reliability blinding us to rare chain-reaction failures?
A 12-year-old Dreamliner on a quick turnaround under extreme heat—fuel lines steeped in 50°C metal. Scheibner believes this “thermal squeeze” could’ve triggered a vapor lock fatality.
Nine Dreamliners inspected, 24 remain. As DGCA orders urgent fleet-wide checks, the bigger question looms: was AI 171’s tragedy an isolated freak—or a warning shot for long-haul safety?