It was a foggy October morning in 1988. Most of the people on board Indian Airlines Flight 113—often remembered as the Air India crash Ahmedabad due to the carrier's eventual merger—were just looking forward to landing. They were coming from Mumbai. It was a short hop. But as the Boeing 737-200 approached the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, things went south fast. Real fast.
The date was October 19.
Fog is a nightmare for pilots. Especially back then. We didn't have the sophisticated automated landing systems in every Indian airport that we take for granted today. The pilots were flying into a literal wall of grey.
Why the Air India crash Ahmedabad remains a case study in pilot error
Basically, the plane struck trees and a high-tension pylon. It was about five kilometers from the runway. When a massive piece of machinery like a Boeing 737 hits a power line at landing speeds, the result is never good. The aircraft erupted into flames almost instantly.
Out of the 135 people on board, 131 died.
It's one of those tragedies that feels avoidable when you look at the black box data. The Court of Inquiry, headed by Justice A.K. Mathur, didn't mince words. They pointed the finger squarely at "pilot error." The crew was trying to conduct a visual approach in conditions that were absolutely not visual. They couldn't see the ground, but they kept descending anyway. It’s called "controlled flight into terrain" (CFIT). It means the plane was perfectly functional, but the people flying it drove it into the ground.
Honestly, the cockpit atmosphere must have been incredibly tense. The Captain, H.M. Jhingran, and First Officer M.J. Valiandar were experienced. Yet, they ignored the basic rule of aviation: if you can't see the runway at your "decision height," you go around. You climb back up. You try again or head to another city. They didn't. They pushed.
The technical breakdown of the impact
The plane was too low. Way too low.
According to the official reports, the aircraft was flying at an altitude of only about 40 feet when it should have been much higher during that phase of the approach. It clipped the top of trees in a suburb called Chiloda Kotarpur. Imagine the sound of aluminum tearing against branches at 150 miles per hour.
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Then came the high-tension wire.
That was the end.
The impact killed almost everyone instantly. The fire did the rest. It’s a grim reality of aviation history in India, and it served as a massive wake-up call for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The survivors and the miracles
You’d think a crash like that leaves nobody behind. But five people initially survived. One died later in the hospital. The stories of those four who walked away from the Air India crash Ahmedabad wreckage are the stuff of nightmares and miracles.
One survivor, Vinod Tripathi, once described the experience as a sudden "jerk" followed by total darkness and heat. People were screaming. Then, silence. He managed to crawl out of a hole in the fuselage. Imagine standing in a field in the outskirts of Ahmedabad, covered in soot, watching the plane you were just sitting in turn into a bonfire.
The local villagers were the first on the scene. This was 1988. No cell phones. No GPS-tracked ambulances. Just farmers running toward a plume of black smoke. They hauled people out of the burning metal with their bare hands.
What the investigation actually found
It wasn't just "they flew too low." The investigation delved into the psyche of the cockpit.
- The weather report given to the pilots was outdated.
- The visibility was actually less than what the tower told them.
- The pilots failed to use the Instrument Landing System (ILS) properly because they were overconfident in their ability to see through the haze.
Mistakes. Small ones that piled up.
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Aviation experts often talk about the "Swiss Cheese Model." Every safety barrier is a slice of cheese with holes in it. Usually, the holes don't line up. On October 19, 1988, every single hole lined up perfectly. The weather was bad, the communication was slightly off, and the pilots made a fatal decision to keep descending.
How this tragedy changed Indian aviation forever
We don't talk about the Air India crash Ahmedabad just to be morbid. We talk about it because it changed how you fly today.
After this disaster, and the crash of a Fokker-27 in Guwahati the same day (yes, two crashes in one day), the Indian government went into overdrive. They realized the "chalta hai" (it's okay) attitude in aviation was killing people.
- Strict adherence to Decision Height: Pilots now face severe consequences if they attempt visual landings in sub-standard visibility.
- Infrastructure upgrades: This crash accelerated the installation of better ILS systems across Tier-2 Indian cities.
- CRM Training: Crew Resource Management became a thing. It’s a fancy way of saying pilots are trained to talk to each other and challenge mistakes, regardless of who has more "stripes" on their shoulder.
Misconceptions about Flight 113
A lot of people get the airline confused. Because Indian Airlines merged with Air India decades later, the records often list it as an Air India event. Technically, it was IC113.
Another weird myth is that the plane had an engine failure. It didn't. The engines were screaming at full power until the moment of impact. The plane was doing exactly what the pilots told it to do. It just so happens they told it to go too low.
The lingering legacy in Ahmedabad
If you go to the site today, there isn't much to see. Nature has reclaimed the area. But for the families of the 131 victims, the Air India crash Ahmedabad is a wound that never quite closed.
There was a long legal battle over compensation. In India, the legal system moves like a glacier. Some families waited years to get the measly insurance payouts that were standard back then. It was a secondary tragedy of bureaucracy following a primary tragedy of fire and metal.
Lessons for the modern traveler
You might wonder why this matters now. Well, it matters because it reminds us that safety isn't a suggestion. When you're sitting in a plane today and the pilot announces a delay due to fog, or says they are diverting to another city, don't get mad.
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Think of Flight 113.
The pilots of that flight were trying to be "on time." They were trying to get people home. Their desire to complete the mission overrode their commitment to safety. Modern aviation puts "Safety" above "Schedule" precisely because of the blood spilled in Ahmedabad in '88.
Practical takeaways from the history of IC113
Understanding these events makes you a more informed passenger. Here is what we’ve learned from the aftermath of this specific disaster:
Trust the Divert: If your flight to Ahmedabad or any fog-prone city is diverted, it is because the ILS categories or pilot certifications don't match the current visibility. It is a life-saving decision.
Seatbelt Safety: While IC113 was largely unsurvivable due to the fire, many survivors in similar "controlled flight into terrain" incidents are those who stayed buckled in until the final stop.
Infrastructure Matters: Always check if the airport you are flying into has updated CAT III ILS systems if you are traveling during the winter months in North India. Most major airports do now, but it's the reason why modern "Air India crash" scenarios are significantly rarer than they were in the 80s.
The tragedy of 1988 remains a somber chapter in the logbooks of Indian aviation. It stands as a permanent reminder that in the sky, there is no room for "maybe" or "I think I see the ground." You either see it, or you climb.
To stay safe in modern travel, always prioritize airlines with high safety ratings and never complain about a weather-related delay; those delays are the lessons of the past being put into practice to keep you alive today.