Can automation stop an aircraft from making its last plunge into disaster, if it can halt a dangerous gas leak or a robotic arm from hitting a worker?

India faced a monumental tragedy on June 12, 2025, which profoundly affected the country's conscience. Shortly after taking off, regular passenger flight Air India AI 171 crashed. Hundreds of families were permanently altered, and 265 lives were lost in those fleeting moments. As the nation grieves, we are reminded that safety must be integrated, intelligent, and uncompromising in any industry where machines are trusted with human lives.

Fundamentally, industrial automation is designed to avoid failure. Real-time data, predictive algorithms, and automatic interlocks are standard—not exceptions—in nuclear power plants, chemical plants, and oil refineries. These devices do not wait for a mistake to turn deadly. When danger is imminent, they step in, take control of, and stop systems. Why are not these procedures properly implemented in every airplane that takes off from the runway if they are recognized as standard in industrial zones?

Initial investigations into the AI 171 crash point to mechanical irregularities that may have been caused by the engine or the flap mechanism. Industrial control systems are specifically designed to identify these kinds of issues before they become more serious. Sensor network-powered predictive maintenance can detect vibrations, overheating, or signal anomalies on manufacturing floors and initiate preventive measures. Such knowledge needs to be the cornerstone of flight safety in aviation. A catastrophe should not be necessary to remind us of our obligation.

Companies all across the world have already created technologies that, if fully integrated, have the potential to transform the aviation safety environment. AI-driven health monitoring from Honeywell Aerospace can identify even the smallest variations in engine or flap deployment. Vibration analysis and live engine health diagnostics from GE Aerospace can identify problems before pilots even taxi the runway. Siemens' industrial SCADA systems and digital twin capabilities could provide real-time insights and intervention logic by simulating complete aircraft systems under stress. Flight control systems with autonomous fail-safes, telemetry intelligence, and terrain-aware AI have been developed by Collins Aerospace and Thales. These systems could act as watchful copilots during crucial flight situations.

India also has exceptional engineering capability that might turn this tragedy into a turning moment. Real-time simulation and embedded aircraft systems are areas in which L&T Technology Services specialises. In an emergency, the control architecture and visual analytics of Tata Elxsi can improve cooperation between the cockpit and the ground. With its established avionic capabilities and government mandate, Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) might take the lead in creating domestic flight failover systems tailored to India's expanding commercial aircraft fleet.

Aviation is not unfamiliar with the concepts of redundancy, transparency, simulation, and predictive logic that protect industrial operations from catastrophe. However, they frequently continue to be underutilised or isolated from real-time execution. With the use of industrial automation systems, which have been developed over decades of minimising loss, damage, and downtime, we can rethink airplane safety as an intelligent, adaptable ecosystem rather than a checklist.

This remark is not intended for marketing. It is morally required. We are not selling systems; we are selling a viewpoint based on the idea that technology should prioritise saving lives before making money. Can automation stop an aircraft from making its last plunge into disaster, if it can halt a dangerous gas leak or a robotic arm from hitting a worker?

We encourage aviation regulators, aircraft manufacturers, and system integrators to carefully examine the industrial automation technologies at their disposal. Talk to them. Try them out. Give them orders. For the 265 people who perished on Air India Flight AI 171 deserve more than just sympathy; they deserve a future free of such headlines.

We have an obligation to respond, not merely to commemorate, to the 265 lives lost. to create systems that are able to see what humans cannot, respond more quickly than their instincts, and defend without hesitation.

This goes beyond code and machinery. It concerns lives. Concerning parents who never returned home. Regarding kids who will grow up with memories rather than moments.

Let us be moved by this moment—from grief to guardianship, from stillness to system transformation. Because words cannot express true gratitude. It is to ensure that no family has to deal with this again. Boardrooms are hardly the safest places to be. They are based on automation, accountability, and a shared determination to make safety a top priority.

We should stop saying, "It could have been stopped," now. For the first time, let us really mean it.

NB. This is not an expert view of an aviation professional, more in the nature of loud thinking from an automation perspective. The exact cause of the crash is under investigation by multiple authorities. 

About the Author
This article was written by Krisha Chettiar,Research and Strategy Associate,Industrial Automation Magazine.

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