Ever since the Ahmedabad crash has happened, there is constant attention on Gaurav Taneja’s insights as he is a former pilot withh almost a decade experience.

When the tragic incident happened, many perspectives were shared by professionals from across the world. Taneja too dived in after sometime and rejected the possibility of flap error mistake – a hypothesis which was earlier given by Captain Steve only to make a U-turn after a few days.

In the recent podcast with Prakhar Gupta, Taneja however shared a possibility which could have saved many lives even if there was no choice of bringing the power back to the aircraft engines which appears the prima facie cause of accident.

According to the former pilot, had there been a forest area, or even an open field in the vicinity of the airport, crash landing the aircraft would likely have saved many lives.

Taneja questioned the authorities for allowing the construction of buildings which ideally should not have been allowed in the first place.

“There is a lawyer who is handling my case also. He has filed lot of PIL in Mumbai High Court and he said there are lot of buildings which should not be there. The Airport authority of India has given left right centre permission. From where did they give it.” Taneja said during the podcast.

“In any other country you go, this does not happen that the airport ends at the perimeter wall and then a building is constructed.”

The host Prakhar Gupta then asked whether any difference would have occured had the aircraft had an option of crash landing in a near by forest area or a vacant land, to which Gaurav Taneja replied in affirmative.

“YES, there is a procedure of crash landing. And we practise it. In such a scneario, the pilots would have crash landed the aircraft. There would have been damage to the wings or landing gear. But people would have been evacuated.” Gaurav Taneja explained.

Very recently, the government has also brought a draft named as Aircraft (Demolition of Obstructions) Rules, 2025 which enables the authorities to order reduction or demolition of the buildings so that their height remains within the permissible limit. As you can understand ,these measures are drafted considering the renewed scrutiny of air safety protocols after the Air India tragic accident.

In fact cities like Surat and Mumbai have started the identifying and reviewing process of the trees, building and other obstacles that are above the permissible height around the airport area.