Air India 171 *URGENT New Data* FADEC ECC Failure - Captain Steeeve RESPONDS

Just moments ago, we received an

official update from Air India on some

of the information that the corporation

Air India knows about Air India Flight

171. In addition, after my video on

VaporLock posted about 2 and 1/2 days

ago that got over 400,000 views, we've

seen multiple other YouTube channels

start talking about the theory of vapor

lock. In this video, we're going to give

an update on that, but I'm actually

going to give you some insight into what

may be even more of a probable cause for

the Air India 171 accident based on new

information that's since come out. Now,

in case you're not familiar, I'm Meet

Kevin. I'm the owner, operator, and uh

pilot in command of this Phenom 300E, a

dual engine jet. In this video, we're

going to touch on first the latest

updates from Air India. Air India just

provided in an inter interview interview

with the Times of India information on

the engines. The right engine was new

and installed as of March of 2025.

So, in other words, less than 2 months

old at the time of the Axim. And the

left engine was quote last serviced in

2023. Typically, an engine is going to

get overhauled every 5 to 10,000 hours.

So, this may not be unusual. Though,

using the word service might be a bad

translation since engines are serviced

with oil. I think they might be

referring to overall here, but that

translation might be lost. Uh, the CEO

of Air India indicates, quote, "No

safety concerns that were raised on this

7878

prior to the crash. There were no known

maintenance issues or red flags, which

stands in contrast with some of the

rumors we've heard online that this

plane has had maintenance issues in the

past. We've seen video of the air

conditioning not working in the cabin on

the ground. people suggesting these

planes specifically. This aircraft has

had issues with sort of the uh cabin

pooling or cabin electrical systems for

the little computer uh you know computer

screens that you see in front of your

seat and glitching out or not

functioning. But the CEO at least at the

moment suggests no known maintenance

issues or red flags that Air India has

been coordinating with Boeing at the

quote highest levels and has also

coordinated with GE regarding the GE NX

engines regarding any potential known

issues. Now this is entirely possible

here that the CEO is just sort of

washing their hands of hey we didn't

know anything. This is a terrible

tragedy. We've got both black boxes

recovered. So TBD what information is

revealed and released from this? But

what we should do right now is catch you

up to speed on why Air India 171 could

have crashed and what we know about this

accident. First, we know that the RAM

air turbine was deployed. We can audibly

hear the deployment of the RAM air

turbine. Uh and uh we can see it. Now,

this at this point, we're going to

assume we're already accepting of this

information, and this information

suggests that an electrical failure or a

dual engine failure is heavily likely.

Catching you up, since this incident

occurred 6 days ago, now it's highly

believed that a dual engine failure is

the likely cause of the Air India 171

crash. But the question is, what would

cause a dual engine failure? We already

know the ram air turbine, a little

spinning turbine that gives you the

opportunity to potentially restart your

engines or operate some basic electrical

equipment at higher altitudes like

cruise altitudes could be useful but not

very useful at 400 to 600 ft which is

all this aircraft was able to climb to

unfortunately before crashing. We also

know that there are rumors around

potentially the uh pilots setting up the

flaps instead of the gear retracting the

wrong uh uh lever essentially. This

seems unlikely based on on the ground

footage of the wings of the aircraft

appearing like they're set to a flaps 5

setting suggesting the flaps were never

fully retracted. Despite this rumor, we

do see potential evidence that the gear

was indeed commanded up, but never

actually fully went up. Uh, in fact, a

Gary B pilot has a great video on this

where he shows what the typical gear

retraction mechanism looks like on a

Boeing 787. He's a first officer and he

plays a clip here of once that gear is

commanded up, the Boeing 787 actually

tilts the tires while opening the board

doors before retracting the actual gear

of the aircraft. And based on the

footage that we could see, the crash

footage, some of the higher resolution

crash footage, and the different angles,

it's currently believed that the gear

was indeed commanded up. So, it doesn't

seem like while it's still possible, it

doesn't seem like pilot error was one of

the large contributing factors here, at

least not regarding the gear or the

flaps based on the limited information

we can have at this moment. So, this is

where we get to the topic of vapor lock

and potential electrical issues. Now, a

lot of people have a lot of issues with

vapor lock, and we're going to talk

about vapor lock in just a moment. But

what I'd like to do is first talk about

the potential of a catastrophic engine

failure here. But you see, one of the

things that we know is that when we have

a dual engine failure or an electrical

failure, we're going to get that

deployed ram air turbine, which is

exactly what we saw and we heard. In

fact, we remember that Bronco Liri has a

fantastic uh uh uh video comparison

where he shows uh the ram air turbine

deployed or at least the sound of the

ram air turbine being deployed and this

being something that we can listen to

very closely to hear. Ah, okay. That's a

distinct sound of the ram air turbine

deployment. I'll save your time and not

rehash some of this older information by

showing video clips and that we can see

that in prior videos. What matters more

is now what would cause a dual engine

failure. And so there are a few things

that c could cause a dual engine

failure. Let's for a moment start with

an electrical and fadec issue. Now this

is potentially a very convincing

argument as to why the Boeing 787 could

have had a complete loss of thrust. that

we didn't necessarily lose our engines

since we didn't see smoke or flames

coming out of the end of the uh the you

know the the rear side of the engines.

Well, it's possible the engines simply

simultaneously flamed out because of a

fuel issue or vapor lock which we could

talk about. It seems possible that

thrust was simply lost as the fedc or

the full authority digital engine

control unit potentially reset to some

kind of failsafe reversion, which is in

English a way of saying this. Imagine

you're driving a car and you have your

foot halfway down. So, pedal halfway

down to the metal, right? And you're

like, "Cool, I should be accelerating."

But then all of a sudden, a computer

says, "Uh-oh, there's some kind of

sensor or data issue. We're resetting

your throttle to zero." So now your

foot's halfway on the pedal. And you're

like, "Where did all my engine power

just go? My foot's halfway down the

pedal." Now, of course, we might, you

know, let's push. The first reaction

might be to push down more or to push

the throttle forward on the plane. But

that could be where we have to get into

spontaneous emergency procedures for re

resetting fedc control that we don't

know if those procedures were properly

trained, properly followed or if it was

even possible in the limited time this

aircraft was airborne to reset the fedc

system that full authority digital

engine control system. So in other

words, as the gear was commanded up, it

is possible that there was a sudden

surge of power in the electrical system

leading to some form of sensor failure

or some form of ECC

failure. This would be uh uh your um

your engine control center failure where

you have some form of catastrophic

cascade of electrical failures. We're

not just talking about a breaker popping

here, but some kind of electrical

failure that happens at the same time as

you go command gear up. Some form of

bizarre electrical power surge that

resets the fadec basically resetting

your throttle to zero. So in other

words, the engines didn't fail

potentially in this theory, but the

control system, the computer that

controls the throttle may have failed.

In our phenom, for example, we also have

a fadec, which means when we move the

throttle, we're not moving a cable.

We're not moving any kind of fuel valve.

We're simply telling the computer we

want more throttle. Well, if there's a

catastrophic computer failure on takeoff

or some kind of electrical failure that

leads to that, we might command throttle

and get no throttle until that fadec is

reset, which would be a critical phase

of flight to have such a failure. In

addition, if it happened at the same

time as we commanded the gear up, but

the gear isn't fully retracting because

that electrical failure hits at roughly

that same time. Now, we have the drag of

our gear down and no thrust produced by

a full weight engine on a hot day when

we need all the performance we can get.

Fewer air molecules, slower climb rate.

And unfortunately, this is where we see

in the video, it looks like the

aircraft, it doesn't stall out, nose

down. It just simply looks like it loses

lift, which is almost why some people

are starting to suggest, could this

potentially have been some kind of uh

malicious action that maybe uh either a

pilot accidentally fell on the throttle

and pulled the throttle back. That's a

rumor that's going around. I find that

somewhat unlikely. Some people are

saying maybe this was malicious and they

just pulled the throttle back. But

frankly, if this was a malicious

intention of downing this plane, you

probably wouldn't be nose up. You'd

probably be nosed down or accelerating

into some form of malicious case. So, I

really find that to be an unlikely

theory. Though, let's be real,

everything gets a percentage chance. But

this new information about the gear

potentially being commanded up,

functioning, and then all of a sudden

freezing could potentially suggest that

an engine failure was caused by some

kind of catastrophic electrical failure

that led the gear not to complete its

gear up motion. Suddenly you get the uh

complete electrical failure that leads

to a failure or a a um reversionary mode

of the fedex basically resetting the

fedc. full authority digital engine

control resetting it to zero. Meanwhile,

the pilots are unaware of why all of a

sudden they lost all thrust. They are

likely pushed the the forward rather

than even having time or going through

the procedures to reset. Frankly, there

was not even enough time to pull out a

quick reference handbook to figure out

why did I just lose fedc control? How am

I going to reset this? And it's unlikely

that losing fadec control is a memory

item in the Boeing 787.

This also doesn't appear to be a single

engine failure because we don't see the

aircraft yaw to one side. Typically, in

an engine failure, you're going to

rapidly yaw to one side. This looks like

you simply lose dual thrust at the same

time. In fact, I have a video where I

can simulate an engine failure, a single

engine failure for you, just so you

could see this. Now, mind you, the video

that I'm going to show you is from uh

training when I was brand new at flying

jet. Uh, and so the instructor is going

to pull back where the little hand here

is. It's going to pull back on one of

the throttles to simulate an engine

failure. And you should see the front of

the plane. You see that yaw right there?

That's a substantial yaw on a takeoff

that I then have to counter with rudder.

And the reason is my right engine loses

thrust and in that loss of thrust

uh my left engine is now overpowering

the aircraft. So my aircraft flying

straight loses thrust than the right. I

get more push from the left engine and

we get that yaw which is not what you

see in the Air India crash suggesting

this was not a single engine failure.

This was a dual engine failure. And I

know there are a lot of rumors around,

oh well, perhaps the pilots uh made a

mistake and and simply pulled the wrong

lever.

I I suppose this is possible, but I

don't think it would lead to a

catastrophic failure of of complete

thrust here, even if I leave the gear

down. And I've I've done plenty of

emergency procedure takeoffs where we do

uh you know 50ft goarounds and we

purposefully leave the gear out to see

how the aircraft would handle with the

gear out in training and it just isn't

an issue. Even with misconfigured flaps,

it's really unlikely that it would lead

to such a catastrophic uh here's me

going for the gear handle right here.

it's really unlikely that we would get a

catastrophic result on this takeoff uh

for the Air India accident. So this is

why electrical failure seems to be a

little bit more likely leading to a fedc

reset or a computer control failure. So

this is where you know I've put together

a little bit of a menu of what I think

the odds of this dual engine failure

are. So I think the dual engine failure

is almost certain here. Not a single for

the lack of yaw. We saw theories causing

dual engine failure. We don't see birds,

so we're going to put that at less than

10%. Pilot error, the flap gear mistake,

the falling on the throttle, the thrust

issue, you know, some kind of uh, you

know, in intentional issue potentially

here, like malicious. I put that at

under, you know, a 13% chance, maybe

even lower. Uh, we'll talk about vapor

lock in just a moment. There's obviously

the potential for maintenance issues.

Give that maybe about a 15% chance. But

I actually believe a greater chance than

the vapor lock theory that I kind of

introduced to the scene. Nobody was

talking about vapor lock until I started

talking about it. Mind you, I'm not

trying to take credit for that. I'm just

trying to say like the idea here is to

walk through these ideas and as we get

more information revise. So

this fadec control failure

is very likely given the lack of flame

out that we see out of the end or the

failure to see any kind of movement in

yaw suggesting an uneven failure of the

engines and it reiterate is reiterated

by the deployment of the ram air turbine

and then of course the lack of engine

thrust. Now what about vapor lock?

Everybody started talking about vapor

lock uh after this video that I did

right here. Critical new data engine uh

you know vapor lock engine failure and

we talk about that as a potential,

right? Uh and so we've got a few videos

that came out. This is the first time I

saw Captain Steve talk about vapor lock.

Let's see here. So I you know I I

totally agree with that. What what's the

theory? Have you heard about this vapor

lock theory? So yeah. So let me throw

out another one to you. Okay. Okay. So,

it's 40. I saw I saw one mear line that

said it was 43 Celsius there. That's

like 110 or 112 degrees. That's really

hot. Right. Right. So, they're going to

have a much longer takeoff roll as a

result of that. And this is where they

kind of first initially start talking

about vapor lock. Talked about the gear

over here. Uh, and then this is actually

where Captain Steve really goes into

talking about vapor lock. Uh, and he has

a whole segment on it. Take a listen.

been asking me to explain to all of you

what vapor lock is. Okay. Uh again, you

can big P small P with vapor lock if you

want. There's going to be lots of strong

opinions about vapor lock, but we can't

exclude vapor lock completely. Now, a

lot of folks, let me answer the possible

objections about vapor lock before I get

into what it is. Some of the objections

are, oh, that only happens in piston

engines or that only happens in

carbureted engines. It doesn't make any

difference what type of engine we're

talking about. This is something that

happens to the fuel before it reaches

the engine. So, it can happen in a

turbine engine. It can happen in a reip.

It can happen in a piston engine,

carbureted or non-carbured. It can

happen in every type of engine because

it's something that happens to the fuel.

Now, I've got a great article here. I

want to read it to you and I got to put

my glasses on cuz I've been going for

about 20 hours straight.

This is basically where he gets into

talking about the potential for vapor

lock and how it can happen in jet

engines. Uh and I'll give a quick

explanation uh of this using actually uh

you know a liquid here. I've got a

colored vegetable oil here and this is

really just to give a visualization. So

um I don't actually believe and I want

to be clear about this. I don't actually

believe this is the primary likely cause

anymore of the Air India crash. Like I

said, as I've posted here, I think it's

less than a 20% chance that vapor lock

or this fuel issue contributed to a dual

flame out of both of the engines, but it

definitely is a chance. And Captain

Steve provides an update on exactly the

vapor lock that we introduced to the

scene. But let's explain it quickly.

Typically, you have a pressurized

system. Imagine I squeeze this bottle

really hard and I always basically have

this oil or fuel and you know in the

case of a jet engine it' be jet fuel

pressured the lines are always going to

be pressured right so imagine I'm

pushing at the back okay these are fuel

pumps fuel pumps are electrically driven

is it possible that we had a dual fuel

pump failure of course absolutely

possible that we had a dual fuel pump

failure because of some catastrophic

electrical issue but This seems like it

would be odd because we also have

battery backups, right? We switch to

batteries. I can while I'm flying, and I

don't do this while I'm flying. I do it

during my testing on the ground, but I

can push a button called electrical

emergency, and I will cut off every bit

of electricity to any non-essential

component of the plane, and I can run

off my batteries and my backup batteries

for 30 to 40 minutes. uh and and I can

still fly the plane and and have my

primary flight displays and and whatever

equipment that I need through a

simulated electrical emergency. My fuel

pumps are going to operate under this

situation. Again, this is why it's so

interesting that potentially could you

have had a fadec failsafe reversionary

mode where thrust goes to zero based on

the computer due to some electrical

failure or sensor failure seems much

more likely uh than a dual fuel pump

failure because fuel pumps are going to

provide pressure. When you lose your

fuel pumps though, you go to a

suctionbased system which is basically

the engine is sucking fuel and that

vacuum that it creates essentially pulls

uh fuel into the engine which basically

there are little sprayers inside of the

actual engine that atomize the fuel uh

and and and ignite uh to create thrust

inside of the turbine. Okay. Now, if the

suction system, which is, you know, all

no longer pressurized, you no longer

have somebody pushing at the end, you're

just operating now on, you know, a fuel

line that's operating off of suction,

which is fine. But what happens on very

high heat days where inside of the cabin

you're also not operating the air

conditioning which is what we had seen

during uh the pre-takeoff on tarmac

footage of the plane. Is it possible you

have vapor lock because the cooling is

not enabling fuel lines inside the

fuselage of the plane to be properly

cooled. Possible.

I still give it a smaller likelihood

because you know our wings are obviously

separate. Yes, we get heat from the

ground. Uh you know the the you know

unused fuel recirculates back into the

tanks which can warm this up. But these

are all normal procedures. So you'd

really on takeoff have to imagine that

the fuel lines became so hot that they

vaporized the jet fuel which can happen

less likely than obviously on on a

piston engine but can happen. You

vaporize. So you create water in the

fuel pump line. Now you lose your fuel

pump, your both engines fuel pumps and

you're left with suction. Now you go

take off with vapor in the line. And

then what happens when you're nose high?

See that you as your nose high only

operating off suction without pressure.

You potentially get a moment a momentary

loss of fuel. Right? As you're nose high

tilting on your climb, that vapor uh

leads to a temporary flame out. Uh

unfortunately, you're not going to have

enough time to relight the engines. So,

is it possible? Yeah. I don't think it's

as probable as a fade control issue

based on the deployment of the RAT. Uh

because we wouldn't necessarily have had

a RAT deployment uh until later in the

sequence where you actually lost

of fuel flow to both engines. It looked

like you had no yaw, which implies that

they shut down at exactly the same time,

which would also be weird that both

engines perfectly vapor locked at

exactly the same time with no yaw. And

that rat came out so quickly, which may

have taken longer had you had a flame

out versus an immediate electrical

failure. So, this is why I'm now

reducing the odds for some form of vapor

lock issue and am heavily focusing with,

in my opinion, and obviously we'll see

when the blackbox data comes out, but in

my opinion, some form of failsafe

reversion to zero thrust and an

inability to reset the fadec to get

thrust back. And it also aligns with

what we hear about uh a potential mayday

call that indicated no thrust, no power.

both of those align. So that's my latest

on what's going on with the Air India

crash, Air India crash update and

hopefully it puts together some of the

pieces of the puzzle. Obviously as more

data comes out, we'll keep providing

more updates. So follow for more. Why

not advertise these things that you told

us here? I feel like nobody else knows

about this. We'll we'll try a little

advertising and see how it goes.

Congratulations, man. You have done so

much. People love you. People look up to

you. Kevin Praath there, financial

analyst and YouTuber. Meet Kevin. Always

great to get your take.