- By Vridhi Soodhan
- Mon, 16 Jun 2025 04:27 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Gaurav Taneja, popularly known as Flying Beast on YouTube, recently shared a video expressing his views on the Air India plane crash that occurred on June 12, 2025, claiming the lives of over 250 people. The tragic crash has reignited discussions about accountability in Air India. Some internet users even questioned the decision to appoint Capt. Manish Uppal to a key leadership role. Reacting to all the online claims made towards the irresponsible behaviour of the pilots, Gaurav Taneja reacted by uploading a video on his YouTube channel.
Gaurav Taneja defended the pilots and said, “Pilots outside India are claiming that the crash happened because the Indian pilots retracted the flap instead of the gear because the videos before the crash show that the gear is down. Pilots gear up when the flight is 100 feet above the surface. They said wings are supposed to create lift, which is supposed to keep the aircraft in the air and when you retract the flaps there is a loss of lift and that loss of lift caused the flight to go down but I have a serious problem with this theory.”
The YouTuber shared that he doesn’t believe in this theory and even demonstrated how, if the pilots accidentally pulled the wrong handle, they had a window of 18 seconds to correct the mistake.
Talking about the reality of big companies, Flying Beast mentioned, “It’s very easy to blame the pilots when they are not there to defend themselves. Boeing and Air India both are big companies so leave them and let’s blame the pilot. Also, it gets easy to claim insurance if you blame it on the pilot. That is one more reason for big companies to not take it upon themselves. Americans think Indian pilots aren’t very competent but that’s not the case.”
For the unversed, Gaurav Taneja served as a commercial pilot for over a decade and was a captain at Air Asia before getting involved in a whistleblower scandal. His wife, Ritu Rathi, is also a pilot.
