Flying forward: sensitivity and sensibility

June 12, 2025 will be remembered with a heavy heart. The tragic accident of Air India’s Ahmedabad—London flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, shook not just the aviation industry but also every Indian. The aircraft was among the most sophisticated.

- * DR RAJEEV KUMAR MEHAJAN, WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANISATION, UNITED NATIONS

And yet, in one shattering moment, lives were lost, families were broken, and questions were raised. In fact, the shockwaves were felt far beyond Air India. Friends of mine working across other airlines shared how a quiet gloom descended over their staff too—because in aviation, a tragedy anywhere is felt everywhere. This is not the first time aviation has faced heartbreak. Every such accident reopens old wounds, but it also carries a silent reminder: aviation is built on resilience.

From a management perspective, it was a profoundly challenging scenario. “Behind every headline number lies a family shattered, a CEO carrying the unbearable weight of lost colleagues and shaken customers, and regulators grappling with the sobering question—could this have been prevented? The emails from the Air India CEO to a frequent flyer like me; I can only imagine the weight in his words, knowing that every reassurance must fight through his own grief and responsibility.” No wonder, as Shiv Shivakumar often reminds us, a CEO is not only the Chief Executive Officer but also the Chief Empathy Officer.

Half the safety equation

As a young pilot officer in the Indian Air Force (IAF), I learnt early that safety is never about machinery alone. The most advanced aircraft, weather radars, and check lists cannot compensate for the human element—our decisions, our culture, our accountability. That insight became the seed for my earliest writings on aviation. I once wrote in Aerospace Safety Journal: “Knowledge is only half the safety equation. The other half is attitude.” Time and again, investigations reveal that even when technical factors play a role, the mindset of decision-makers—at all levels—determines the fine line between a close call and a catastrophe.