‘Raised Flight Safety Concerns In 2020’: YouTuber ‘Flying Beast’ Gaurav Taneja After Ahmedabad Plane Crash

Air India Ahmedabad Plane Crash: The deadly Air India Ahmedabad plane crash that resulted in massive casualties, along with significant structural damage and heartbreaking stories- ended up raising multiple questions on the very way an airline maintains its safety inspections and other vital issues. Amid all kinds of questions and reactions by netizens on the plane crash, Youtuber Gaurav Taneja also joined in, and recalled the time when he did something similar in 2020. Taneja, also popular as Flying Beast, took to his social media handle a day after the crash and claimed that he had ‘raised serious flight safety concerns against Air Asia’ in 2020. However, as per the YouTuber’s post, the airline did not fix the issue, and instead ‘fired the whistleblower’.

For context, Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed in Ahmedabad’s Meghaninagar area on June 12, Thursday- soon after the take off. The Air India Flight AI171 crashed into the hostel mess of BJ Medical College. The flight reportedly took off at 1:39 PM from Runway number 23 at the Ahmedabad airport, with 242 passengers and crew onboard. As per reports, former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was also onboard the crashed flight.

A 'May Day' distress call was issued to the Ahmedabad air traffic controller- soon after the takeoff, according to a statement by aviation regulator DGCA. However, the plane received no response. The number of casualties has not been confirmed yet, whereas intensive rescue, evacuation, and firefighting operations were launched soon after the accident. Reportedly, the plane had descended rapidly- dropping 475 feet per minute from an altitude of 625 feet.

Coming back to the YouTuber’s social media post, he also named an official who was allegedly suspended at the time, but eventually ‘resumed’. The YouTuber’s post so short after such a devastating tragedy only left many triggered over how airlines work and how corporations react to whistleblowers.

Times Now could not confirm the authenticity of the post.

“In May 2020, I raised serious flight safety concerns against #AirAsia. DGCA investigated, safety lapses found and suspended 2 top officials. Who was the top boss - Capt Manish Uppal (also suspended). What did the airline do? Fixed the safety issues. Fired the whistleblower. Capt Manish resumed. Today, after the merger of Air Asia, Vistara and Air India. Guess who is the top boss of Flight operations at Air India. Capt Manish Uppal,” the post read.

The post was shared on X (formerly Twitter), by the handle ‘Gaurav Taneja’. The post was shared today and pulled more than 1M views from people.

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“Safety in India is a Joke, if you can please your bosses you will climb the ladder,” a user said. “That's how things work in our country. Provide a solution to the problem- no. Remove the one pointing out the problem- yes,” added another.

“Whistleblowers are always treated in the most thankless way. Snowden being another high profile one. I'm glad, despite the world making it clear that being a whistleblower is injurious to health, whistleblowers don't follow the advice and continue to expose corporate wrongs!” added another.

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